A water-based gel will be applied to your legs, and an ultrasound probe, or transducer, will be used ot scan the arteries in you legs. Images of your arteries and the sound of your blood flow will be recorded on videotape. This portion of the examination takes approximately one hour.

If all three portions of the arterial evaluation are performed, the evaluation could take 2 to 22 1/2 hours. There is no special preparation for a lower extremity arterial evaluation.

Lower Extremity Venous Duplex Scan
The purpose of a venous duplex scan is to detect the presence of thrombus (blood clot) in your veins. Some indications for a lower extremity venous scan include warmth, pain and swelling of one or both legs, or ulcers of legs.

Images of your veins and the sound of blood flow within them will be recorded using ultrasound (high frequency sound waves). A water-based gel will be applied to your legs and ultrasound transducer will be used to record the images. You will be asked to perform various breathing maneuvers and will feel compressions of your leg in several places throughout the test. This examination is usually painless, although you may feel some discomfort if your leg is tender. This procedure takes approximately 1 your to perform, and no special preparation is required.

Abdominal Aorta Duplex Scan
An ultrasound scan of your abdominal aorta is performed to detect aneurysms (weakening and stretching of the walls of the aorta). A water-based gel will be applied to your abdomen, and images of your abdominal aorta and the sound of blood flow through is will be obtained using and ultrasound transducer. These images will be recorded on videotape. This procedure is painless and will take approximately 45 minutes. It is necessary to fast (refrain from eating and drinking) for 6 hours prior to this procedure.

Carotid artery duplex scan
The purpose of a carotid artery duplex scan is to detect the presence of atherosclerosis (narrowing caused by plaque) in your carotid arteries, which ar the arteries in your neck that supply blood flow to your brain. Some indications for a carotid artery duplex scan include weakness, paralysis or dysfunction of limbs, change in speech, visual disturbances, numbness or tingling of limbs, and balance disturbances. Your physician may also order a carotid duplex scan if he detects a bruit (sound or murmur) when he listens to the blood flow in your neck with his stethoscope.

A water-based gel will be applied to your neck and an ultrasound transducer will be used to obtain the images and sound of your blood flow. This scan is painless and takes approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour. No special preparation is required for this examination.

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