Splanchnic vein thrombosis (SVT) including portal, mesenteric, splenic vein thrombosis and the Budd-Chiari syndrome, is a manifestation of unusual site venous thromboembolism. SVT presents with a ...lower incidence than deep vein thrombosis of the lower limbs and pulmonary embolism, with portal vein thrombosis and Budd-Chiari syndrome being respectively the most and the least common presentations of SVT. SVT is classified as provoked if secondary to a local or systemic risk factor, or unprovoked if the causative trigger cannot be identified. Diagnostic evaluation is often affected by the lack of specificity of clinical manifestations: the presence of one or more risk factors in a patient with a high clinical suspicion may suggest the execution of diagnostic tests. Doppler ultrasonography represents the first line diagnostic tool because of its accuracy and wide availability. Further investigations, such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance angiography, should be executed in case of suspected thrombosis of the mesenteric veins, suspicion of SVT-related complications, or to complete information after Doppler ultrasonography. Once SVT diagnosis is established, a careful patient evaluation should be performed in order to assess the risks and benefits of the anticoagulant therapy and to drive the optimal treatment intensity. Due to the low quality and large heterogeneity of published data, guidance documents and expert opinion could direct therapeutic decision, suggesting which patients to treat, which anticoagulant to use and the duration of treatment.
Abstract Background Great saphenous vein (GSV) incompetence is involved in the majority of cases of varicose disease. Standardised pre-interventional assessment is required to analyse the relative ...merit of treatment modalities. We weighed GSV diameter measurement at the sapheno-femoral junction (SFJ) against measurement at the proximal thigh 15 cm distal to the groin (PT), established a conversion factor and applied it to selected literature data. Methods Legs with untreated isolated GSV reflux and varices limited to its territory and control legs were studied clinically, with duplex ultrasound and photoplethysmography. GSV diameters were measured at both the SFJ and the PT. A conversion factor was calculated and used to compare published data. Results Of 182 legs, 60 had no GSV reflux (controls; group I), 51 had above-knee GSV reflux only (group II) and 71 had GSV reflux above and below knee (group III). GSV diameters in group I measured 7.5 mm (±1.8) at the SFJ and 3.7 mm (±0.9) at the PT. In groups II and III, they measured 10.9 mm (±3.9) at the SFJ and 6.3 mm (±1.9) at the PT ( p < 0.001 each). Measurement at the PT revealed higher sensitivity and specificity to predict reflux and clinical class. Good correlation between sites of measurement ( r = 0.77) allowed a conversion factor (SFJ = 1.767 * PT, PT = 0.566*SFJ) to be applied to pre-interventional data of published studies. Conclusions GSV diameter correlates with clinical class, measurement at the PT being more sensitive and more specific than measurement at the SFJ. Applying the conversion factor to published data suggests that some studies included patients with minor disease.
The CEAP (Clinical-Etiology-Anatomy-Pathophysiology) classification is an internationally accepted standard for describing patients with chronic venous disorders and it has been used for reporting ...clinical research findings in scientific journals. Developed in 1993, updated in 1996, and revised in 2004, CEAP is a classification system based on clinical manifestations of chronic venous disorders, on current understanding of the etiology, the involved anatomy, and the underlying venous pathology. As the evidence related to these aspects of venous disorders, and specifically of chronic venous diseases (CVD, C2-C6) continue to develop, the CEAP classification needs periodic analysis and revisions. In May of 2017, the American Venous Forum created a CEAP Task Force and charged it to critically analyze the current classification system and recommend revisions, where needed. Guided by four basic principles (preservation of the reproducibility of CEAP, compatibility with prior versions, evidence-based, and practical for clinical use), the Task Force has adopted the revised Delphi process and made several changes. These changes include adding Corona phlebectatica as the C4c clinical subclass, introducing the modifier “r” for recurrent varicose veins and recurrent venous ulcers, and replacing numeric descriptions of the venous segments by their common abbreviations. This report describes all these revisions and the rationale for making these changes.
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Background:
To investigate the influence of superficial venous ablation on deep venous dilation and reflux in patients with saphenous varicose veins, and to elucidate the association between ...superficial venous reflux and deep venous morphology and hemodynamics.
Methods:
The data of 154 patients with 223 limbs, who underwent endovenous radiofrequency ablation (RFA) of the great saphenous vein for primary varicose veins between September 2014 and March 2016 in Eniwa Midorino Clinic, were retrospectively analyzed. Overall venous hemodynamics of the leg, including functional venous volume (VV) and venous filling index (VFI), was assessed using air-plethysmography. Saphenous and deep vein reflux and diameter were evaluated with duplex scanning.
Results:
Hemodynamic and morphologic changes were evaluated before and 1 month after RFA. The VV and VFI were significantly decreased in postoperative values than in preoperative values (P < .001). Limbs with deep venous reflux significantly decreased postoperatively than preoperatively (P < .001). There were significant differences in the diameter of the common femoral vein (CFV) and popliteal vein (PV) between the preoperative and postoperative values (P < .001). There were strong to moderate correlations between the VV and the diameter of the CFV or PV (CFV, r = 0.47, P < .001; PV, r = 0.35, P < .001), while there were moderate to weak correlations between the VFI and the diameter of the CFV or PV (CFV, r = 0.23, P < .001; PV, r = 0.33, P <.001).
Conclusions:
Superficial venous ablation significantly reduced deep venous dilation and reflux in patients with saphenous varicose veins. Significant correlations existed between the VV or VFI, which reflected superficial venous reflux, and the diameter of the deep veins. These findings reveal that volume overload due to superficial venous reflux is associated with deep venous morphology and hemodynamics.
Segmenting portal vein (PV) and hepatic vein (HV) from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans is important for hepatic tumor surgery. Compared with single phase-based methods, multiple phases-based ...methods have better scalability in distinguishing HV and PV by exploiting multi-phase information. However, these methods just coarsely extract HV and PV from different phase images. In this paper, we propose a unified framework to automatically and robustly segment 3D HV and PV from multi-phase MR images, which considers both the change and appearance caused by the vascular flow event to improve segmentation performance. Firstly, inspired by change detection, flow-guided change detection (FGCD) is designed to detect the changed voxels related to hepatic venous flow by generating hepatic venous phase map and clustering the map. The FGCD uniformly deals with HV and PV clustering by the proposed shared clustering, thus making the appearance correlated with portal venous flow robustly delineate without increasing framework complexity. Then, to refine vascular segmentation results produced by both HV and PV clustering, interclass decision making (IDM) is proposed by combining the overlapping region discrimination and neighborhood direction consistency. Finally, our framework is evaluated on multi-phase clinical MR images of the public dataset (TCGA) and local hospital dataset. The quantitative and qualitative evaluations show that our framework outperforms the existing methods.
The superior vena cava (SVC) is the largest central systemic vein in the mediastinum. Imaging (ie, radiography, computed tomography CT, magnetic resonance MR venography, and conventional venography) ...plays an important role in identifying congenital variants and pathologic conditions that affect the SVC. Knowledge of the basic embryology and anatomy of the SVC and techniques for CT, MR imaging, and conventional venography are pivotal to accurate diagnosis and clinical decision making. Congenital anomalies such as persistent left SVC, partial anomalous pulmonary venous return, and aneurysm are asymptomatic and may be discovered incidentally in patients undergoing imaging evaluation for associated cardiac abnormalities or other indications. Familiarity with congenital abnormalities is important to avoid image misinterpretation. Acquired abnormalities such as intrinsic and extrinsic strictures, fibrin sheath, thrombus, primary neoplasms, and trauma can produce mild narrowing to complete occlusion, the latter leading to SVC syndrome. Each imaging modality plays a role in evaluation of the SVC, helping to determine the site, extent, and cause of pathologic conditions and guide appropriate management. Commonly performed interventional procedures for fibrin sheath and benign and malignant strictures include low-dose thrombolytic infusion, fibrin sheath disruption, venous angioplasty, and stent placement.
The use of ultrasound (US) has been proposed to reduce the number of complications and to increase the safety and quality of central venous catheter (CVC) placement. In this review, we describe the ...rationale for the use of US during CVC placement, the basic principles of this technique, and the current evidence and existing guidelines for its use. In addition, we recommend a structured approach for US-guided central venous access for clinical practice. Static and real-time US can be used to visualize the anatomy and patency of the target vein in a short-axis and a long-axis view. US-guided needle advancement can be performed in an "out-of-plane" and an "in-plane" technique. There is clear evidence that US offers gains in safety and quality during CVC placement in the internal jugular vein. For the subclavian and femoral veins, US offers small gains in safety and quality. Based on the available evidence from clinical studies, several guidelines from medical societies strongly recommend the use of US for CVC placement in the internal jugular vein. Data from survey studies show that there is still a gap between the existing evidence and guidelines and the use of US in clinical practice. For clinical practice, we recommend a six-step systematic approach for US-guided central venous access that includes assessing the target vein (anatomy and vessel localization, vessel patency), using real-time US guidance for puncture of the vein, and confirming the correct needle, wire, and catheter position in the vein. To achieve the best skill level for CVC placement the knowledge from anatomic landmark techniques and the knowledge from US-guided CVC placement need to be combined and integrated.
Chronic venous disease (CVD) is a debilitating condition with a prevalence between 60-70%. The disease pathophysiology is complex and involves genetic susceptibility and environmental factors, with ...individuals developing visible telengiectasias, reticular veins, and varicose veins. Patient with significant lower extremity symptoms have pain, dermal irritation, swelling, skin changes, and are at risk of developing debilitating venous ulceration. The signature of CVD is an increase in venous pressure referred to as venous hypertension. The various symptoms presenting in CVD and the clinical signs that are observed indicate that there is inflammation, secondary to venous hypertension, and it leads to a number of inflammatory pathways that become activated. The endothelium and glycocalyx via specialized receptors are critical at sensing changes in shear stress, and expression of adhesion molecules allows the activation of leukocytes leading to endothelial attachment, diapedisis, and transmigration into the venous wall/valves resulting in venous wall injury and inflammatory cells in the interstitial tissues. There is a complex of cytokines, chemokines, growth factors, proteases and proteinases, produced by activated leukocytes, that are expressed and unbalanced resulting in an environment of persistent inflammation with the clinical changes that are commonly seen, consisting of varicose veins to more advanced presentations of skin changes and venous ulceration. The structural integrity of protein and the extracellular matrix is altered, enhancing the progressive events of CVD. Work focusing on metabolic changes, miRNA regulation, inflammatory modulation and the glycocalyx will further our knowledge in the pathophysiology of CVD, and provide answers critical to treatment and prevention.
Background
Venous resection may be required to achieve complete resection of pancreatic cancers. We assessed the ability of radiographic criteria to predict the need for superior mesenteric–portal ...vein (SMV-PV) resection and the presence of histologic vein invasion.
Methods
All patients who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy from 2004 to 2011 at the authors’ institution were identified. Preoperative pancreatic protocol CT images were re-reviewed to characterize the extent of tumor–vein circumferential interface (TVI) as demonstrating no interface, ≤180° of vessel circumference, >180° of vessel circumference, or occlusion. Findings were correlated with the need for venous resection, histologic venous invasion, and survival.
Results
A total of 254 patients underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy and met inclusion criteria; 98 (39.6 %) required SMV-PV resection. In our cohort, 76.4 % of patients received neoadjuvant chemoradiation. The TVI classification system predicted with fair accuracy both the need for SMV-PV resection at the time of surgery and histologic invasion of the vein. In particular, 89.5 % of patients with TVI >180° or occlusion required SMV-PV resection. Of those, 82.4 % had documented histologic SMV-PV invasion. TVI ≤180° was associated with favorable overall survival compared to a greater circumferential interface.
Conclusions
A tomographic classification of the tumor–SMV-PV interface can predict the need for venous resection, pathologic venous involvement, and survival. To assist in treatment planning, a standardized assessment of this anatomic relationship should be routinely performed.
Abstract Objective Neovascularisation is a major cause of recurrent varicosities following surgery. This prospective cohort study compares recurrence rates and the occurrence of neovascularisation ...following surgery or endovenous laser ablation (EVLA) for great saphenous vein reflux. Method 118 consecutive patients (72 female, 46 male, median age 48 range 32–68 years), 129 limbs were reviewed at a median of 24 months (range 18–30) after surgery ( n = 60 limbs) or EVLA ( n = 69 limbs) for primary sapheno-femoral and GSV reflux. Varicose vein recurrence, ultrasound detected groin neovascularisation and patient satisfaction (visual analogue scale) were recorded. Results Recurrence rates at 2 years were: surgery group 4/60 (6.6%; mid-thigh perforator n = 2, residual GSV with neovascularisation n = 2), EVLA group 5/69 (7%; GSV recanalisation n = 3 (all received <50 J/cm laser energy), mid-thigh perforator n = 1, new anterior saphenous vein reflux n = 1) p = 0.631. Neovascularisation was detected in 11/60 (18%) of the surgery group and 1/69 (1%) of the EVLA group, p = 0.001. Patient satisfaction rates were 90% and 88% respectively ( p = 0.37). Conclusions Although the frequency of recurrent varicosities 2 years after surgery and EVLA was similar, neovascularisation, a predictor of future recurrence, was less common following EVLA. Further, current recommendations on delivering ≥70 J/cm laser energy should reduce recanalisation rates and recurrence after EVLA.
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