Abdominal/retroperitoneal vascular ultrasound

The use of ultrasound in the imaging of abdominal vascular structures has become commonplace in the evaluation and management of patients with vascular disease. Because it is noninvasive, portable, and repeatable, it holds advantages over other imaging modalities that require ionizing radiation, intravenous contrast, or transportation away from a typical patient care environment. While the quality of ultrasound imaging is user dependent, increasing familiarity with its uses and limitations has allowed it to become the study of choice to both initially and definitively identify disease and guide treatment.