VENOUS STRAIN-GAUGE PLETHYSMOGRAPHY - REFERENCE VALUES

Objective. To establish sex and age related reference values for venou s strain-gauge plethysmography. Design. Strain-gauge plethysmography m easurements in healthy volunteers. Setting. Examinations performed in a University Hospital (Malmo) and a County Hospital (Kalmar). Particip ants. Healthy volunteers, without history or signs of venous insuffici ency. Twenty-seven men, 31 women, age range 15-74 years. Main outcome measure. Refilled volume (RV;ml/100 ml tissue), half refilling time (T -50;sec), and refilling time to 90% of RV (T-90;sec). Results. RV; low er limit 0.6 ml/100 ml tissue. T-50; lower limit 3.3 sec T90; lower li mit age dependent and calculated from the ekvation: In (T-90) = 3.864- 0.0111 age-0.337, where In is the natural logarithm. Methodological er ror: RV (15%), T-50 (28%), T-90 (23%). Conclusions. Strain-gauge pleth ysmography can be used to evaluate venous insufficiency and could be e specially useful in follow-up studies after therapy Normal age and sex related reference values are needed. Zn this study reference values a re established, Preferably RV and T-90 should be used.