What Can Venous Mapping Reveal About My Health?

Your veins are vital to your circulatory system — carrying blood back to the heart for reoxygenation. When your veins aren’t working, you may need a procedure known as venous mapping.

Chinatown Cardiology, with four New York City locations, specializes in venous mapping and other vascular studies to identify obstructions, faulty valves, and other issues that interfere with healthy blood circulation.

Our expert cardiologists provide comprehensive cardiovascular evaluations in-office and can determine if you’re a candidate for venous mapping. They also offer personalized treatment plans if your diagnostic vein study reveals underlying problems.

What to know about venous mapping

Venous mapping is a noninvasive screening that uses Doppler ultrasound technology to assess the health of your veins in your lower or upper extremities.

The test allows our cardiologists to evaluate blood flow through specific veins. We can also measure the diameter of veins to identify vessel enlargement. One of the primary conditions venous mapping can detect is venous insufficiency.

Chronic venous insufficiency develops when there’s damage to the valves that control blood flow in the vein. In healthy veins, valves open to let blood pass through and close to prevent the fluids from moving backward.

Weak or damaged veins don’t function correctly and allow blood to flow backward, which can pool in the vein and enlarge the vessel. Valve dysfunction can also cause symptoms like:

• Leg pain
• Cramping
• Itching
• Heaviness
• Fatigue

People with chronic venous insufficiency can also experience changes in skin texture or color and develop sores that won't heal properly.

Candidates for venous mapping

Venous mapping may be part of your diagnostic testing for vascular disease if you have symptoms of chronic venous insufficiency or varicose veins, when blood pools in the vein and causes the vessel to bulge out underneath the skin.

Our providers might also recommend venous mapping if you have a family history of varicose veins or are at risk of vein damage or disease because of:

• Aging
• Obesity
• Pregnancy
• Standing for long periods

With early diagnosis, chronic venous insufficiency and varicose veins can be treated before symptoms become severe.

Your venous mapping appointment

Chinatown Cardiology offers venous mapping on an outpatient basis so you can leave soon after your procedure. You don’t need to prepare for your appointment, but it’s a good idea to drink extra water to hydrate your veins for better test results.

At your appointment, we help you get comfortable on an exam table. Your technician then uses a hand-held device that delivers ultrasound energy into the soft leg tissues. The sound waves bounce off the tissues to create images of your veins for viewing on an external monitor.

Your provider can stimulate blood flow through the targeted vein by pressing on specific areas of your leg. They watch as blood flows through the vessel to check for obstructions or valve dysfunction and can also measure vein diameter.

When your test ends, your cardiologist reviews the results with you. If your veins are healthy, you can return to your usual routine without limitations. If you have varicose veins or signs of venous insufficiency, we discuss your treatment options, such as endovenous ablation therapy.

Call the Chinatown Cardiology office near you today to learn more about the diagnostic benefits of venous mapping, or request an appointment online.