Abstract

Role of Doppler and CT Angiography in upper limb vascular pathologies. Materials and methods: Total 105 (39 females and 66 males) patients with suspected upper limb vascular pathologies were studied with relevant history and clinical Examination. Doppler was performed on ultrasonography machine using a 7.5 MHz linear array transducer (Occasionally, a 5 MHz phased array transducer), CT angiography was performed on 128 slice MDCT machine using proper anatomical position and set protocols. Results: The study included 105 patients with suspected upper limb vascular pathologies. Out of 96 patients of right upper limb examined, imaging findings of 93 were compared, since 3 patients were not included because of poor CT imaging quality and 99 patients of Left upper limb examined with Doppler Imaging were compared with CT angiography. Doppler imaging showed good diagnostic accuracy, specificity, sensitivity, PPV and NPV in examining large arteries of upper limb including Subclavian, axillary, and brachial arteries when correlated with CT angiography, while Radial and ulnar arteries showed comparatively low diagnostic accuracy, specificity, sensitivity, PPV and NPV when correlated with CT angiography, however both methods showed good agreement. Conclusion: Doppler Imaging was found to have a high negative predictive value and could exclude a significant lesion, it could determine the nature and extent of arterial disease based on which treatment can be planned, thus doppler can be used as a screening method however combination of Doppler Imaging with MDCT angiography has better diagnostic accuracy

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