Endovascular Diagnostic & Treatment Options

Southcoast offers a full range of endovascular services to both diagnose and treat vascular disease. We offer the very latest technology — including minimally invasive procedures — along with the expertise of highly trained surgeons, interventional radiologists and staff nurses and technologists.

Diagnostic Services

• Angiography: Diagnostic imaging of blood vessels with the injection of contrast dye through a catheter.

• CT Angiography: Computerized tomographic angiography, also called CT angiography or CTA, combines the technology of a conventional CT scan with traditional angiography to create detailed images of the blood vessels in the body.

• Ankle Brachial Index: The ankle-brachial index (ABI) is a measurement that evaluates blood circulation in your legs. It can also be used to follow the improvement or worsening of leg circulation over time. ABI is obtained my measuring your blood pressure in your ankle and in your arm.

• Duplex ultrasound: Duplex ultrasound shows how blood is flowing through your vessels and measures the speed of the flow of blood. It can also estimate the diameter of a blood vessel as well as the amount of obstruction, if any, in the blood vessel.

• MR Angiogram: MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) uses magnetic fields and radio waves to produce two-dimensional or three-dimensional images of the structures inside your body, such as your heart, brain or blood vessels. When this scanning method is applied to the blood vessels, it is also sometimes referred to as MRA (magnetic resonance angiography).

Treatment Services

• Thoracic or abdominal aortic aneurysm stent-graft repair: This surgical procedure uses a fabric tube (graft) supported by metal mesh (stent). It can be used for a variety of conditions involving the blood vessels, but most commonly to reinforce a weak spot in an artery called an aneurysm.

• Balloon Angioplasty: Insertion of a small balloon into a blocked artery, which is then inflated to push obstructing plaque against the arterial wall and improve blood flow. In peripheral artery disease (PAD), this is used to restore blood flow mainly in leg arteries.

• Carotid artery stent: A small, self-expanding, stainless steel mesh tube that is placed within a carotid artery to keep the vessel open.

• Venous angioplasty: The use of angioplasty to treat clots and stenoses (narrowing) in veins.

• Endarectomy: Endarterectomy is the surgical removal of plaque from an artery that has become narrowed or blocked. A variety of surgical techniques can be used to remove plaque.

• Endovenous laser treatment (EVLT): This is used to treat varicose veins and is performed in an outpatient setting.

• Surgical Bypass: This vascular surgery treats narrowed arteries by creating a bypass around the section of the artery that is blocked. During a bypass procedure, your vascular surgeon creates a new pathway for blood flow using a graft. A graft can be a portion of one of your veins or he or she may use a synthetic graft.

Find a Surgeon or Doctor

Click here for a list of Southcoast Vascular Surgeons

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