Radiological Society of North America

Varicose veins

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Definition:
Varicose veins are gnarled, enlarged veins. Any vein may become varicose, but the veins most commonly affected are those in your legs and feet. That’s because standing and walking upright increases the pressure in the veins of your lower body.

Varicose veins affect 1 out of 2 people over age 50. They are more common in women than men. Hemorrhoids are a type of varicose vein. Spider veins are like varicose veins, but they are smaller.

For many people, varicose veins and spider veins — a common, mild variation of varicose veins — are simply a cosmetic concern. For other people, varicose veins can cause aching pain and discomfort. Sometimes varicose veins lead to more-serious problems. Varicose veins may also signal a higher risk of other circulatory problems. Treatment may involve self-care measures or procedures by your doctor to close or remove veins.

Symptoms:
Varicose veins usually don’t cause any pain. Signs you may have varicose veins include:

*Veins that are dark purple or blue in color
*Veins that appear twisted and bulging; often like cords on your legs
*Varicose veins may also form in other places on your legs, from your groin to your ankle.

CLICK & SEE THE PICTURES
When painful signs and symptoms occur, they may include:

*An achy or heavy feeling in your legs
*Burning, throbbing, muscle cramping and swelling in your lower legs
*Worsened pain after sitting or standing for a long time
*Itching around one or more of your veins
Skin ulcers near your ankle, which can mean you have a severe form of vascular disease that requires medical attention . Spider veins are similar to varicose veins, but they’re smaller. Spider veins are found closer to the skin’s surface and are often red or blue. They occur on the legs, but can also be found on the face. Spider veins vary in size and often look like a spider’s web.

Diagnosis:Ultrasound – Venous (Extremities)

When to call health care provider
Self-care — such as exercise, elevating your legs or wearing compression stockings — can help you ease the pain of varicose veins and may prevent them from getting worse. But if you’re concerned about how your veins look and feel and self-care measures haven’t stopped your condition from getting worse, see your doctor.

Causes:–
Arteries carry blood from your heart to the rest of your tissues. Veins return blood from the rest of your body to your heart, so the blood can be recirculated. To return blood to your heart, the veins in your legs must work against gravity. Muscle contractions in your lower legs act as pumps, and elastic vein walls help blood return to your heart. Tiny valves in your veins open as blood flows toward your heart then close to stop blood from flowing backward.

Causes of varicose veins can include:

*Age. As you get older, your veins can lose elasticity causing them to stretch. The valves in your veins may become weak, allowing blood that should be moving toward your heart to flow backward. Blood pools in your veins, and your veins enlarge and become varicose. The veins appear blue because they contain deoxygenated blood, which is in the process of being recirculated through the lungs.

*Pregnancy. Some pregnant women develop varicose veins. Pregnancy increases the volume of blood in your body, but decreases the flow of blood from your legs to your pelvis. This circulatory change is designed to support the growing fetus, but it can produce an unfortunate side effect — enlarged veins in your legs. Varicose veins may surface for the first time or may worsen during late pregnancy, when your uterus exerts greater pressure on the veins in your legs. Changes in your hormones during pregnancy also may play a role. Varicose veins that develop during pregnancy generally improve without medical treatment within three months after delivery.

Risk factors:
These factors increase your risk of developing varicose veins:

*Your age. Varicose veins occur most often in people ages 30 to 70, with your risk increasing as you age. Aging causes wear and tear on the valves in your veins that help regulate blood flow. Eventually, that wear causes the valves to allow blood to flow back into your veins where it collects instead of flowing up to your heart.

*Your sex. Women are more likely to develop the condition. Hormonal changes during pregnancy, premenstruation or menopause may be a factor. Female hormones tend to relax vein walls. Taking hormone replacement therapy or birth control pills may increase your risk of varicose veins.

*Genetics. If other family members had varicose veins, there’s a greater chance you will too.

*Obesity. Being overweight puts added pressure on your veins.

*Standing for long periods of time. Your blood doesn’t flow as well if you’re in the same
position for long periods.

Complications:-
Complications of varicose veins, although rare, can include:
Ulcers. Extremely painful ulcers may form on the skin near varicose veins, particularly near the ankles. Ulcers are caused by long-term fluid buildup in these tissues, caused by increased pressure of blood within affected veins. A brown colored spot on the skin usually begins before an ulcer forms. See your doctor immediately if you suspect you’ve developed an ulcer.

Blood clots. Occasionally, veins deep within the legs become enlarged. In such cases, the affected leg may swell considerably. Any sudden leg swelling warrants urgent medical attention because it may indicate a blood clot — a condition known medically as
thrombophlebitis.

Treatment :
*Ambulatory Phlebectomy(American Society for Dermatologic Surgery)

*Sclerotherapy(American Society of Plastic Surgeons)

*Varicose Vein Treatment (Endovenous Ablation of Varicose Veins)(Radiological Society of North America)

*Vain Treatment: What to Expect Before, During, and After(American Academy of Dermatology)

Alternative Therapy :-
*Bilberry(National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine)
*Horse Chestnut(National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine)

Click to learn more about Varicose veins

Disclaimer: This information is not meant to be a substitute for professional medical advise or help. It is always best to consult with a Physician about serious health concerns. This information is in no way intended to diagnose or prescribe remedies.This is purely for educational purpose.

Resources:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/varicose-veins/DS00256

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/varicoseveins.html

Imaging Way to Keep the Doctor Away

New diagnostic machines showcased at a global medical conference in Chicago are going to rewrite the future of medicine.

SOME IMAGING EQUIPMENT PRESENTED AT RSNA 2008: (From left) High-resolution MRI system; a 4-D imaging ultrasound system ; the 1000-slice CT scanner

If you ask any knowledgeable person to name an area of science or technology that is set to revolutionise medicine, you will probably get “genomics” as an answer. Not many would say that “medical imaging” is the future. But this seemingly mundane technology is rewriting medical diagnostics and treatment like never before.

In the public mind, medical imaging is synonymous with three technologies: x-ray, ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). While these three still remain the basis of most initial diagnostic investigations, medical imaging has gone far beyond these techniques.

Variations of these three basic technologies now provide images of unprecedented accuracy, while new methods like molecular imaging are taking imaging to uncharted territories. Imaging techniques can point out cancer cells early, map far-flung crevices of the brain and show blood vessels and the flow inside them.

“Genomics has got all the publicity, but imaging has really transformed medicine in the last decade or two,” stresses T.S. Sridhar, professor of molecular medicine at St John’s Hospital, Bangalore.

It is no accident that the largest medical conference in the world is in the field of imaging, and is organised by the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). The conference in Chicago, held between November 30 and December 6, presented some cutting edge research and imaging equipment that provided a glimpse into the future. One could see, among other things, computed tomography (CT) scanners that could take up to 1000 images of a body part in no time, MRI machines that could compensate for movement of the heart and provide clear images, and molecular imaging equipment that map tumours and their activity with great accuracy.

More and more clinical investigations are going to depend on imaging to provide clues to health problems. Traditionally, an image of the body is taken when you investigate symptoms of some disorder, but this practice is going to change soon. “Molecular imaging can tell you about risks for many diseases well before symptoms appear,” says Jean Luc Vanderheyden, molecular imaging leader at GE Healthcare.

Imaging is a technology that is already transforming medicine every day, as evidenced by the research presented at the conference. Here are a few samples. Scientists presented a new technique called magnetoencephalography (MEG) that maps small magnetic fields associated with brain activity. Among other things, it was used by scientists at the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia to study abnormalities in the brain of autistic children.

Scientists from the University of California in San Francisco showed how CT scans could probe two diseases at once: colorectal cancer and osteoporosis (brittle bone disease). A new variant of mammography, called positron emission mammography (PEM), can point out those cancers in the breast that neither conventional mammography nor MRI can identify.

Advances in imaging technology are now promising to rewrite healthcare in at least one major way: by detecting diseases early, at a stage when treatment is very effective. Traditionally, early detection of disease was not under the purview of medical imaging, and doctors advised an ultrasound or an MRI only when there was some symptom. There were two reasons for this practice. First, random screening of patients was expensive and impractical. And second, imaging technology had not advanced enough to detect diseases before symptoms appeared.

Now advances in fields such as genomics are providing us with clues about risk factors. We know about many genes that could increase the risk factor for diseases like cancer, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. In developed countries, such high-risk people are already being screened regularly to check for the presence of the disease. And in recent years, imaging technology has advanced enough for radiologists to detect diseases in their early stages, sometimes well before other techniques can detect them. Which is why imaging companies like GE are campaigning to detect diseases early.

Take breast cancer. Regular screenings fail to detect all breast cancers, and sometimes there are false alarms. This is because the density of the breast needs to be high (with less fat than glandular and connective tissue) for MRIs. Hormonal changes that occur during a woman’s menstrual cycle also interfere with the technique. In addition to these gla-ring exceptions, mammogra phy routinely misses minute tumours.

PEM, on the other hand, can detect tumours even in less dense breasts and is also less dependent on hormonal cycles. Also, mammography is now advancing at such a rapid pace that it will soon be able to detect cancers that are barely visible to the naked eye. It seems medicine has finally mastered the art of detecting critical ailments early.

Sources: The Telegraph (Kolkata, India)

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