Life Healthcare is a leading private hospital operator in South Africa and primarily serves the market for privately insured individuals, representing approximately eight million people. The group provides mainly acute care, high technology private hospital services.
Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital is a large Provincial government funded hospital situated in central Mthatha in South Africa. It is a tertiary teaching hospital and forms part of the Mthatha Hospital Complex.
The extensive hospital network includes 64 hospitals (of which 57 are majority owned by Life Healthcare and another seven in which the group holds substantial minority ownership), providing a range of healthcare services throughout South Africa.
This is a medical diagnostic imaging test used to see how blood moves through major blood vessels such as veins and arteries of the neck, arms, and legs. It incorporates the grayscale ultrasound and the color-Doppler ultrasound. The grayscale ultrasound visualizes the structure of the body part while the color Doppler ultrasound visualizes the flow of the structure.
Conditions diagnosed using a color duplex sonography includes:
Arterial occlusion
Abdominal aneurysm
Blood clot
Aortoiliac occlusive disease
Deep vein thrombosis
Arm artery or leg artery disease
Carotid occlusive disease
Varicose veins
Renal vascular disease
Venous insufficiency
Why is a color duplex sonography performed?
To find blocked or narrowed blood vessels in any part of the body.
To locate blood clots in any part of the body.
To evaluate pain in the legs, which may be caused by atherosclerosis.
To evaluate blood flow after conditions that may be caused by blood flow problems such as a stroke.
To evaluate vein problems such as varicose veins.
To map veins which may be used for grafting blood vessels.
To evaluate the amount of blood flow to a transplanted organ such as the liver or kidney.
To evaluate the condition of grafts used to bypass the blockage.
To monitor blood flow after surgery of blood vessels.
To locate arterial plague.
To act as a guide to the treatment of abnormal veins.
To check the blood flow through the placenta.
How to Prepare
Your doctor will recommend stopping the use of nicotine products such as chewing tobacco or smoking cigarettes for at least half an hour before the test. This is because nicotine causes s the blood vessels to narrow or constrict which may lead to inaccurate results.
How it works
You should wear comfortable clothes but a medical gown may be provided. You will lie down on an examination table and a gel will be spread over the area being evaluated.
The technician passes a transducer lightly over the skin above the desired area with the blood vessels. The Transducer then sends and receives amplified sound waves through a microphone. The sound waves bounce off the blood cells and blood cell movement causes a change in reflected sound waves.
You will need to stay very still during the test. The technician may ask you to lie down in different positions. He/ she may also ask you to inhale deeply and hold your breath for a while.
A blood pressure cuff may be tied to your arms or legs. You may experience some pressure as the transducer is moved around, but there is usually no discomfort. The procedure will take approximately half an hour to complete.
Interpretation
The velocity of blood flow increases in regions of narrowing which indicate resistance. Depending on the velocity visualized treatment can be considered. Both displays are presented graphically as overlapping images to enable interpretation.
A computer converts the sounds into a graph display with colors that gives information on the direction and speed of blood flow through the blood vessels being evaluated.
After the procedure
There are no special guidelines or instructions to follow once the procedure is complete.
You can resume your regular activities as soon as the test is done.
About Colour-Duplex Sonography
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