Vascular technology is the evaluation of arteries and veins throughout the human body, findings include hardening of the arteries known as Atherosclerotic disease, blood clots, dilated arteries, surgically implanted bypass graphs and a host of other diseases and conditions that effect arteries and veins, a common vascular study is detecting Atherosclerosis in the carotid arteries located in the neck, carotid disease narrows the diameter of blood vessels which causes the blood to move faster, how fast the blood is moving is compared with established criteria to determine the degree of vessel diameter narrowing, in addition to scanning the vessels of the neck, vascular technologists also scan the arteries within the brain for various disease processes and conditions.
Sonography for this exam must be strong enough to send through bone and into the brain, bounce off of the vessels in the brain, return back through bone and to the ultrasound probe, in most sonogram disciplines, the equipment is becoming much more mobile, rural hospitals and clinics can easily be served by mobile vascular technologists who can make weekly, monthly or spot visits per doctor requests, another common exam performed by vascular technologists is looking for blood clots that often form in veins of a patients legs, their clots can move from the leg, pass through the heart and loge in the patient lungs where the clots can become life threatening.
Atherosclerotic disease can also block flow to the kidneys which causes the patient to have the symptoms of fluctuations in blood pressure, doctors can use a tiny balloon to push the Atherosclerosis or plack out of the way, doctors can also use a medal stent to aid in keeping the plack out of the way, Atherosclerosis can also weaken arteries, like the abdominal aorta, the student is measuring on the monitor, the weakening of the artery will cause it to bulge outward to the point where the vessel is in danger of rupturing.
Vascular technologists also evaluate dialysis access graphs for patients who have kidney failure and must be on dialysis, a dialysis access is where the doctors use the patient’s own vessels or synthetic graphs to create direct flow between an artery and a vein, this allows a larger volume of blood to be accessed for dialysis to keep dialysis time to a minimum, vascular technologists also obtain physiologic information from patients by feeling for patient pulses, listening for arterial sounds, use of blood pressure cuffs and the use of photoplethysmography, the means by which to obtain arterial blood pressures in the fingers and toes of patients, physiologic studies help doctors screen patients for arterial conditions which may require further testing such as arteriograms, neurologic testing, more detailed ultrasound exams and a variety of other diagnostic testing procedures.
An element of the diagnostic process unique to the field of vascular technology is the writing of the preliminary report by the vascular technologist, although a physician will generate a final report, the referring physician or emergency room doctor can act upon the preliminary report alone, this element of responsibility in the diagnostic process means vascular technologists receive considerable respect from most physicians who order vascular studies, OIT is proud to provide students with considerable hands on training and instructors in the sonography program work with each and every student in all lab settings, in order to be successful in the field of vascular technology, students must spend considerable time developing their scanning skills in addition to the regularly scheduled lab times, although it will take considerable work, perhaps the field of vascular technology is right for you.