REPRODUCIBILITY OF DUPLEX ULTRASOUND IN THE MEASUREMENT OF VENOUS REFLUX

Objective: To determine the reproducibility of duplex ultrasound in th e measurement of reflux duration in lower limb veins. Design: Repeatab ility study. Setting: Vascular clinic in a tertiary referral centre. P articipants: Twenty-one patients with severe venous disease. Intervent ions: Patients were scanned using duplex ultrasound by two of three ob servers, then rescanned by a different pair of observers after a mean interval of 51 days. Main outcome measures: Duration of venous reflux. Results: On a Wilcoxon signed rank test, observers 2 and 3 showed no significant interobserver variability. The other pairs of observers ag reed at the majority of segments, but differed at the popliteal vein ( p less than or equal to 0.001), and superficial femoral and common fem oral veins (p less than or equal to 0.05). Observer 2 showed no signif icant intraobserver variability, but observer 1 differed at the common femoral and superficial femoral veins (p less than or equal to 0.05), and observer 3 differed at the short saphenous vein (p less than or e qual to 0.05). Conclusions: Reproducibility was reasonable at certain sites, but appeared to be influenced by position of the vein.