title: Assessment of internal diameters of abdominal and femoral blood vessels in 250 living subjects using color Doppler ultrasonography.
abstract: Acquiring data about venous or arterial vessel size is important for several reasons, given the increasing incidence of thomboembolic phenomena and arterial aneurysms and the emerging new vascular techniques. We studied 250 healthy subjects (125 men and 125 women; age range: 50 to 91 years) with no known vascular pathology, nor hypertension, nor diabetes. We assessed the caliber of abdominal aorta, inferior vena cava, iliac and femoral arteries and viens by color doppler ultrasonography, and analyzed the results with regard to sex, height, weight and body surface of each subject. The mean caliber measure of the large abdominal vessels appeared lower than the value obtained from cadavers. There was a direct proportion between the left and right vessels of the same subject. The difference in vessel caliber between male and female subjects was statistically significant. There was no correlation between vessel caliber and age, height or body surface area.
authors.affiliation: Don Carlo Gnocchi Foundation, IRCCS, Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: Debora
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Valecchi
authors.forename: Duccio
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bacci
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gulisano
authors.forename: Eleonora
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sgambati
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sibilio
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lipomas
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Macchi
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000886:Anthropometry / Q000379:methods; D001012:Aorta, Abdominal / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000502:physiology; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005263:Femoral Artery / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007083:Iliac Artery / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012016:Reference Values; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D018615:Ultrasonography, Doppler, Color / Q000379:methods*; D014682:Vena Cava, Inferior / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000502:physiology