RPhS key terms

Retrograde flow through a vein caused by valve failure, detected on Doppler as flow lasting longer than about half a second in superficial leg veins.

Failure of venous cusps to close completely, allowing blood to fall backward and raise distal venous pressure, producing varicosities, edema, and skin changes.

Long-standing venous hypertension from obstruction or reflux that produces edema, hyperpigmentation, lipodermatosclerosis, and eventually venous ulceration in the lower leg.

Standardized descriptive system grading venous disease by clinical signs, etiology, anatomy, and pathophysiology, used to communicate severity consistently between clinicians and across studies.

Brief surge of venous flow produced by manually squeezing and releasing the calf, used to confirm that a vein segment is patent and that distal valves competent.

Forced expiration against a closed airway that raises intra-abdominal pressure; used during scanning to provoke reflux in the common femoral and saphenous veins.

Manual or transducer pressure applied to a vein to assess compressibility; a normal vein collapses fully, while a thrombosed vein resists compression.

Large superficial vein ascending the medial leg to join the common femoral vein at the saphenofemoral junction; the most commonly treated refluxing vein.

Superficial vein running up the posterior calf to join the popliteal vein, often at or above the knee crease; a frequent site of isolated reflux.

Confluence where the great saphenous vein enters the common femoral vein, marked by the terminal valve and several named tributaries; a key landmark for mapping reflux.

Point where the small saphenous vein joins the popliteal vein, variable in height and sometimes absent, so it must be located individually before any intervention.

Retrograde flow at the terminal or preterminal valve where a superficial vein meets a deep vein, considered the primary source when planning endovenous treatment.

Vessel connecting superficial to deep veins through the fascia, normally directing blood inward; incompetent ones allow outward flow and are linked to ulcers.

Clot within a deep vein, usually of the leg, that obstructs flow and risks embolization; diagnosed by noncompressibility and absent spontaneous or phasic flow.

Chronic symptoms and signs developing after deep vein thrombosis as valves and walls are damaged, producing pain, swelling, and sometimes ulceration.

Normal venous Doppler signal that varies with respiration, waxing and waning gently; loss of phasicity suggests obstruction between the sample site and the heart.

Venous Doppler signal that does not change with breathing, indicating a fixed obstruction proximal to the sample volume or a collateral pathway.

Arterial-like venous waveform seen when right heart pressure is elevated or when a vein lies next to an artery, producing transmitted cardiac pulsations.

Backflow through the tricuspid valve that raises right atrial pressure, transmitted to the jugular and hepatic veins as a pulsatile venous waveform.

Large deep vein in the groin receiving the great saphenous vein; a standard sampling site for assessing phasicity, compressibility, and augmentation.

Deep vein behind the knee formed by tibial and peroneal veins and joined by the small saphenous vein; a common location for thrombosis and reflux assessment.

Vein draining the liver into the inferior vena cava; its waveform reflects right atrial pressure and helps confirm elevated central venous pressure.

Force applied through the probe to the skin; light pressure is needed for venous imaging so that normal veins are not collapsed and mistaken for thrombosed ones.

Display of flow direction and velocity as color overlay on the gray-scale image, with red and blue indicating direction toward or away from the transducer.

Graphic display of flow velocity over time from a chosen sample volume, used to measure direction, duration, and peak velocity of venous flow.

Angling of the color sector to match vessel direction, keeping the beam-vessel angle below about sixty degrees so that color and velocity readings remain accurate.

Angle between the ultrasound beam and the direction of blood flow; a value near sixty degrees or less is required for reliable velocity estimation.

Adjustable gate along the ultrasound beam where spectral Doppler data are collected; it must be centered within the vessel lumen for valid measurements.

Wrapping of the Doppler signal when flow velocity exceeds the scale limit, shown as reversed color or a truncated spectrum; corrected by raising scale or shifting baseline.

Velocity range setting on the Doppler display; too low a setting causes aliasing, while too high a setting makes slow venous flow faint or invisible.

Highest velocity recorded during systole in an arterial waveform; used in venous work mainly to characterize adjacent arteries and detect stenosis.

Aching or heaviness in the leg brought on by exercise and relieved by rest, caused by outflow obstruction rather than arterial insufficiency.

Hardening and darkening of the lower leg skin and fat from chronic venous hypertension, producing an inverted bottle shape and signaling advanced disease.

Open wound usually near the medial ankle caused by sustained venous hypertension, often with surrounding pigmentation and edema; reflux mapping guides treatment.

Gap in the muscular fascia where a perforating vein passes; measured during mapping because a wide defect with outward flow may warrant treatment.

Closure of a refluxing vein using heat, laser, or adhesive delivered through a catheter; pre-procedure mapping documents diameter, course, and junction anatomy.

Injection of an irritant solution or foam into a vein to cause fibrosis and closure, used for small varicosities and tributaries after mapping.

Reflux is assessed with the patient standing because gravity distends veins, while supine positioning is used for compression and deep vein evaluation.

Higher body mass increases intra-abdominal pressure and leg venous volume, making reflux more likely and imaging technically harder due to depth.

Pregnancy raises pelvic and leg venous pressure and volume, causing reversible reflux and swelling; scanning is deferred where possible and done left lateral.