Much of the diagnosis of vascular problems today is done with the help of ultrasound. We are the only private practice in the South Bay to have a full-service vascular ultrasound lab on site. In this way, high quality studies can be obtained with minimal delay and none of the hassle of having to go to a hospital. The studies use ultrasound waves to take pictures of blood vessels and blood flow. They are done by using a small probe with some warm gel on the area of interest. None of them involve needles or radiation. Most studies take under an hour.

All the studies we perform are pain free and non-invasive and are all performed by a Vascular Technologist. This is a person specially trained to do ultrasound only of blood vessels.We have a state of the art Phillips Envisor Ultrasound machine that the tests are performed on. The tests are interpreted by the vascular surgeon. If an urgent problem is found, an interim report will be phoned or faxed to the referring doctor. A full written report with drawings and/or hard-copy prints will usually be mailed within 48 hours. These tests are almost always covered by insurance if ordered by either your doctor or the vascular surgeon.

Many people today are taking the matter of their health into their own hands. They know they have risk factors for vascular disease such as age over 55, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or cigarette smoking and are concerned about having a stroke or dying of a ruptured aneurysm. We offer screening ultrasounds that can put your mind to rest about the above in less than 30 minutes. Insurance does not pay for these, but we have made them quite affordable.

Noninvasive vascular testing procedures performed include:

• carotid duplex scanning
• colorflow duplex imaging of the upper and lower extremity arterial systems
• color flow duplex imaging of the upper and lower extremity venous systems
• the preoperative arterial and venous mapping of both upper and lower extremity arterial venous systems in patients scheduled for vascular access procedures for dialysis and/or arterial bypass surgery
• duplex imaging of previously placed arterial and/or venous reconstruction procedures as part of a graft surveillance program to prevents graft thrombosis
• cold immersion stress testing with digital artery pressures and temperatures measured for the valuation of Raynauds Phenomena

The Noninvasive Vascular Laboratory performs hundreds of the above procedures per year. The Noninvasive Vascular Laboratory is open between 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. Tests can be scheduled by calling (408)376-3626. We will take care of any insurance authorizations that may be required.

Our Vascular lab is headed by Lisa Purcell,RVT, MA. She has --- years of experience in running and building accredited vascular noninvasive laboratories.She came to us from Kaiser Permanente after building a vascular lab there and had previously spent many years as a senior technologist at Stanford. She has a special knack of both making patients feel at ease as well as educating them about their problems.

Vicky Krupnick is our other ultrasonagraper. Vicky also comes to us from Stanford and had also worked at Dartmouth Medical Center. She is particularly interested in venous reflux disease. She is also a registered vascular technologist who works only in imaging blood vessels.

Ellen Rahn is our newest, but most experienced vascular technologist. She spent 16 years running the only accredited vascular laboratory in the South Bay. She has extensive experience with the less common and more difficult noninvasive studies such as evaluation for renal artery stenosis, mesenteric ischemia , and other visceral vascular problems. Before becoming a vascular technologist, she was an ICU nurse.