Deep Vein Thrombosis
Deep vein thrombosis (DVT)…this condition symbolizes why a clinically-trained, licensed sonographer performing the portable Duplex scan for your patient is mission critical. While some providers might take three or four weeks to do the Duplex or employ unlicensed, freshly-graduated sonographers out in the field of portable diagnostics (or, worst of all, both), this is where the consequences of cutting corners can be potentially severe.
This condition occurs when a blood clot, or thrombus, forms in the deep veins of the body. This is often going to be in the legs. Though some symptoms include swelling, leg pain, the affected area becoming warm and tender, skin color change in the leg, cramping or soreness that begins in the calf, etc., others may not be noticeable.
For many types of clients in our portable diagnostics field, patient movement can be restricted due to any number of conditions, from surgery recovery to different illnesses, which raises the risk of a blood clot forming.
Things can get very serious and very quickly because that same blood clot – or multiple – can break loose, hitch a ride through the bloodstream, travel by the right side of the heart, and get stuck in a lung artery. With blood flow thus blocked, this becomes a pulmonary embolism, which is potentially fatal. Symptoms for this may include SOB (Shortness of Breath), chest pain when taking a breath or coughing, lightheadedness, dizziness, fainting, coughing up blood, rapid breathing, rapid pulse, etc.
Treatment recommendations that would also consider the idiosyncrasies of a patient’s condition, environment, etc. are well beyond the scope of our strictly-informational article here.
The role of PHS: Our professional, licensed, clinically-trained sonographer’s job is to utilize the Duplex scan to identify whether a clot has indeed formed so that the patient’s care team can be rapidly notified. Time is of the essence (especially if anticoagulation measures have not yet been taken) and so is the expertise of the sonographer.
Just as every second counts for the patient’s health outcome in performing this critical exam, every minute our sonographer spent gaining clinical experience, studying for certification, and ongoing studies to maintain certification adds up to giving the patient and their care team the absolute best portable imaging they deserve.
Resources to learn more:
American Heart Association: Pulmonary Embolism
Mayo Clinic: Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT)
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