Overview: interpretation of vascular diagnostic testing

The noninvasive vascular laboratory has evolved to be an essential element in the evaluation of patients with arterial and venous disease. Vascular diagnostic testing and its interpretation form the basis for decisions of medical treatment, hospital admission, intervention, and need for additional testing. Vascular testing must be precise, reproducible, and accurate. Assuring quality vascular laboratory diagnostics is a constant challenge, and is linked to the knowledge and experience of the vascular technologist(s) performing the studies and the physician interpreters. In 1991, the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Vascular Laboratory (now the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission Vascular Testing) was established to provide a structured process for accreditation through peer review of relevant quality issues, such as physician supervision, technologist certification, study protocols, standardized diagnostic criteria, reporting standards, and validation studies . Facility accreditation specific to vascular testing is provided in six testing areas (). The accreditation process, which is voluntary, and testing performed by a certified vascular technologist have become important initiatives for quality testing, and are used in selected states by Medicare carriers for reimbursement of vascular testing studies. Recently, the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission Vascular Testing issued a white paper on carotid duplex ultrasound interpretation criteria in an effo...
Source: Seminars in Vascular Surgery - Category: Surgery Authors: Source Type: research