Sometimes people who have potentially threatening vascular disease may not be aware of its presence because warning symptoms have not yet developed. For this reason, vascular screening is used as a method to detect the presence of serious vascular disease in the general population before it has a chance to cause harm.

These vascular screening methods usually employ painless, noninvasive tests, or occasionally a combination of tests, to find unsuspected, but possibly dangerous conditions such as carotid disease, that can lead to stroke, leg artery blockages, which can lead to limb loss, or aortic aneurysms, which can be fatal if they rupture. Common examples of vascular screening tests include ultrasound examinations and Doppler pressure studies.

The Society for Vascular Surgery® (SVS) published a Position Statement on Vascular Screening to help patients and their doctor decide whether they should consider having a vascular screening.

Posted June 2010