Diagnosis and monitoring in arterial surgery: the use of ultrasound and related techniques.

Recent advances in ultrasound techniques have led to new pathophysiological measurements for patients with arterial diseases. They have identified arterial wall stiffening in early atherosclerosis and have shown an exaggerated vascular response to the inhalation of cigarette smoke. Femoral artery Doppler signals have been used to assess the haemodynamic effects of incomplete stenoses of the iliac arteries. Ultrasound imaging has been used to predict non-invasively atheroma at the carotid bifurcation as well as to identify changes in implanted grafts which are associated with late graft failure.