Quantification of venous reflux by means of some duplex scanner and light reflection rheography parameters and its correlation with chronic venous insufficiency symptoms.

BACKGROUND: The quantification of venous reflux is rarely made but it is valuable for studying the natural history of CVI, its prognostic implications and the therapy effectiveness. We have evaluated some parameters of chronic venous insufficiency, caused by valvular incompetence, by means of duplex scanner and light reflection rheography searching for a better correlation with the clinical stages of vein disease. METHODS: We have examined 107 patients (35 males, 72 females; aged 22-78, mean 61.5 +/- 14.3) with long saphenous insufficiency in different clinical stages and measured the venous reflux, the reflux duration, the reflux grade, the vein diameter near the saphenofemoral junction with the duplex scanner and the refilling time with the light reflection rheography. The reproducibility of the studied techniques has been determined by examining 20 legs four times each in the same day or on different days. Statistical analysis of the data was performed by means of the variance analysis followed by the Waller-Duncan test. RESULTS: The venous reflux, the venous diameter and the refilling time can easily range between mild and severe insufficiency: reflux is 6.3 +/- 2.5 ml/sec at stage I; 27.5 +/- 10.1 at stage III; venous diameter is 6.04 +/- 1.4 at stage I; 10.6 +/- 2.2 at stage III; refilling time is 23.6 +/- 9.6 at stage I; 5.4 +/- 2.4 at stage III. The reflux time and reflux grade are unable to separate the various CVI stages. CONCLUSIONS: The measurement of venous reflux, venous diameter and refilling time is simple, quick, reproducible; these indices are able to differentiate mild from severe CVI but unable to separate patients at the second stage of the venous disease from those at the third stage and then ineffective in the ulcer risk assessment but the reflux is highly predictable. The ulcer risk is practically absent for reflux 15 ml/sec (20/46 cases; 43.4%).