COMPUTER GRAPHIC-DOPPLER-IMAGING IN THE E VALUATION OF LOWER-LIMBS OCCLUSIVE ATHEROSCLEROSIS

The problems generally encountered in interpreting written reports of echo-Doppler examinations led us to develop a graphic software system to visualize the vascular network:Echotrace. The objective of the pres ent work was to evaluate the reliability of Echotrace in patients with atherosclerosis of the lower limbs using arteriography as the standar d for assessing sonographic findings. This prospective study was condu cted in 29 consecutive patients. Nineteen strategic sites of the arter ial network were investigated with duplex-scan and arteriography:lesio ns scores were attributed for each examination and data for a given si te were compared. On the 551 sites compared, we found 26 disagreements including 23 concerning lesion quantification and 3 on localizations. There were also 21 minor disagreements with a single variation in the pathology score. The statistical comparisons could not be made on the se scores so the results were compared with the arteriography data on the basis of therapeutic decision taking into account all the arterial lesions and the patient's general status. We observed a perfect agree ment between the two imaging techniques in 12 patients, one disagreeme nt which would not change the treatment in 15 patients and, in 2 patie nts, a disagreement which would modify treatment. This study demonstra ted that graphic visualization of arterial lesions with Echotrace is a reliable, easy-to-interprete method.