Florida Vein Specialists: How We Diagnose Vein Disease
Modern vein treatment in Palm Beach is nothing like it was only a few decades ago. At that time, diagnosing vein disorders – the vast majority of which are hidden below the skin and produce few visible symptoms – was quite different. In those “bad old days,” you often had to go into a hospital, undergo general anesthesia, and submit to invasive procedures just to find out if you were sick.
These days, the diagnostic procedures used to detect vein disease are fast and painless, taking advantage of non-invasive technologies like ultrasound to look beneath the surface of the skin. A venous health screening can be completed in about an hour, in the comfort of your local Florida vein specialist’s offices, and with no need for anesthesia, because the procedures themselves are painless.
As performed by the experienced doctors at South Palm Cardiovascular Associates, the search for vein disease starts with asking the patient to tell us about their symptoms (if any), their own medical history, and (because vein disease is hereditary) their close family’s medical history. We also ask questions about lifestyle to learn whether the patients smoke, whether they have given birth or are taking birth control pills or hormone replacement therapy if they are female, and how much exercise they get. All of these are risk factors for vein disease.
Then we perform a physical examination and, based on the answers we receive from the questions asked, perform a number of non-invasive tests. Naturally we measure your blood pressure, but to help with detecting vein disease or arterial disorders, we often measure it in your arm and your ankle simultaneously. This enables us to determine the ankle-brachial index, a measure of how efficiently your blood is flowing. The next step is usually to use Doppler ultrasound to look below the skin. This helps us to pinpoint any structural abnormalities (such as damaged venous valves), but also allows us to watch blood actually flowing through the veins, to determine whether there are any blood clots or other obstructions impairing its flow. We might order blood tests or perform other tests if they are indicated, or if we find indications of serious disease such as atherosclerosis or deep vein thrombosis.
In most cases, yes…that’s all there is to it. Most venous health screenings are completed in about an hour, possibly a bit longer if we’re doing a checkup on your heart health at the same time. The speed and painlessness of these tests are due to advances that have been made in the diagnosis of and treatment of vascular diseases in recent decades, which have pretty much eliminated the need for older invasive procedures that required anesthesia.
And you’ll be happy to hear that if we do find indications of vein disease, the procedures required to treat it are just as fast and painless. Almost all of the Delray Beach vein treatments we offer to eliminate varicose veins, spider veins, or dangerous blood clots can be performed in the comfort of our Boynton Beach offices, with no need to ever go to a hospital.
So if you’re ready to find out the status of your vein health, pick up the phone and call some of the best vein doctors in Palm Beach at 561-515-0080 to schedule your own screening. It only takes about an hour to detect or prevent vein diseases that could negatively impact your overall health if they remain undetected.
