[Color duplex ultrasonography in the diagnosis of deficient perforating veins in comparison to cw-Doppler ultrasonography and clinical examination].

The study was conducted to investigate the accuracy and agreement between clinical examination, cw-Doppler ultrasound and color-duplex sonography in diagnosing incompetent perforating veins. Nineteen patients with chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) were examined clinically, by hand-held cw-Doppler ultrasound in combination with tourniquet compression and color-coded duplex sonography CDS. The accuracy of the clinical examination and the diagnosis of ICPV by cw-Doppler were surprisingly low. The specificity was 15% and sensitivity 29%, when CDS was taken as gold standard. Furthermore the results show clearly that the application of a tourniquet cannot provide reliable results. It is concluded that in patients with CVI clinical and cw-Doppler examinations are not sufficient for an accurate diagnosis of incompetent perforating veins. Color-duplex provides a new noninvasive approach for accurate anatomical and functional diagnosis, which is of great importance prior to surgical interventions and/or sclerotherapy.