Vascular Ultrasound – You Won’t Get Far Without Knowing Your Anatomy

August 13, 2010
by Shannon Peron, RDCS, RVT


I am sure everyone has heard the phrase “Fake It ‘Til You Make It”. Sorry to say…

NOT THIS TIME!

Could there possibly be a valid reason for not knowing the vascular anatomy? After all, it’s our specialty.

Now, I realize there may be procedures you do not perform often enough to be able to commit the protocols to


memory. This is not the same situation.

That being said, imagine the following scenario:

You work in facility where all abdominal and most thoracic work is handle by the general ultrasound technologists in the radiology department. Your vascular lab handles the arms, legs and the neck. You receive an urgent call from the cardiac cath lab to perform a mapping of the greater saphenous veins on a patient who is to undergo emergency coronary artery bypass surgery. It’s a routine procedure until you begin to scan and realize there are no veins to scan. The patient had them stripped previously due to varicose veins. When you communicate this to the surgeon he informs you he needs to perform a quintuple bypass and will need you to locate and map all viable vessels including the internal mammary artery.

Scanning legs? Got it covered. Internal mammary artery? Do you know what to do or better still, do you know where to look?

You can always brush up on your protocols or definitely obtain enough information on the fly to make an assessment. BUT, you can’t run and grab a book and try to figure out anatomy at the last minute.

Remember –

“YOU CAN’T TEST IT IF YOU CAN’T FIND IT!”

Happy Scanning !!!



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  • http://vascularu/s Lorrie

    LOVE THE PICS, AND LOVE THIS JOB!! i going for my RVS the RDCS any suggetions for the testing part, i have the ability to take the 2 part test do to getting my paperwork in early, but, i have testing anexity and i am SO scared i can’t stand it, also pressure at work to get it and by a certain time frame too, that also makes it stressful!

  • Shannon

    Hi Lorrie, thanks for the comment. I can honestly say “I understand”. The job I currently have requires me to have both RDCS and RVT. They knew I did not have the RVT when I was hired so they gave me one year to obtain it. Luckily I took it seriously because, sure enough, one year later they asked for it. So imagine this scenario, brand new job (supervisory position) overseeing techs with some “very strong” personalities challenging me at every turn and the expectation of making some workflow changes, among other things. Now the added stress of taking and passing this exam. Needless to say, I got it done and you will too.

    14 years, come on, it’s as good as passed. Test taking is not easy, admittedly. You have to commit to quality study time. I took the ESP prep course (Sidney Edelman) both times (RDCS and RVT). I only studied at my hospitals library for exactly 2 hours daily, never at home or in my office (too many distractions). I didn’t study on the weekends (it’s me, mind needed breaks). I marked off the different sections of the table of contents of my workbooks and gave each section a certain amount of time to complete the studying and review before I moved on to the next section. I gave myself a total of 6 weeks to complete studying for each exam (6 weeks each time that is). That is a short period of time but it had to be that way. I gave myself time to retake the tests – just in case.

    Keeping my job (income) was a great motivator. Well, that and having no intention of paying for that test again. Good luck. Vascular techs are awesome. After all, it’s all we know how to be.

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