RVT study guide
RVT · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
Registered Vascular Technologist (RVT®) is an ARDMS credential administered by Inteleos for sonographers who perform vascular ultrasound as a core part of their independent practice. Earning it is a two-exam process: candidates must pass the Sonography Principles and Instrumentation (SPI) exam, the foundation exam shared by all ARDMS certifications, plus the Vascular Technology (VT) specialty exam. The VT exam tests knowledge of the anatomy and hemodynamics of blood vessels, and material spans the cerebrovascular circulation, peripheral arterial and peripheral venous systems, abdominal and visceral vessels, and the instrumentation, quality assurance and specialized testing knowledge that underpins every vascular study. Because the SPI is the prerequisite gateway, most candidates sit for it first and then build vascular-specific knowledge; ARDMS requires the SPI to have been passed within five years of the VT attempt. The RVT study guide has 5 sections and about 1,742 words.
01Cerebrovascular
Nearly every cerebrovascular item asks one of two things: which vessel am I looking at, and how tight is the narrowing? Answer the first before you grade the second.
322 words, about 2 min02Peripheral Arterial
Segmental pressures, plethysmography and Doppler waveform analysis are physiologic tests. They prove a lesion exists and roughly localize it; they do not depict the plaque.
288 words, about 1 min03Peripheral Venous
A normal lower-extremity vein is spontaneous, phasic with respiration, augments with distal compression and release, non-pulsatile, and fully compressible under probe pressure. Loss of phasicity points to proximal obstruction; continuous non-phasic flow may indicate a proximal stenosis or collateral pathway.
265 words, about 1 min04Abdominal and Visceral Vascular
Measure an aneurysm outer wall to outer wall, anteroposterior, in a plane perpendicular to the vessel axis. A tortuous aorta measured obliquely is falsely enlarged, a classic distractor.
261 words, about 1 min05Instrumentation, Quality Assurance and Specialized Vascular Testing
Shift equals (2 times transmitted frequency times velocity times cosine of the Doppler angle) divided by the speed of sound in tissue. The shift rises with transmitted frequency and blood velocity, and falls as the angle approaches 90 degrees.
606 words, about 3 min