The bull's eye sign and other suprainguinal venographic findings to limit the use of intravascular ultrasound in patients with severe venous stasis.

Objective: When assessing the common femoral and suprainguinal veins in patients with venous stasis, it is generally agreed that use of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) is mandatory. This widely held dogma is reinforced by the fact that extrinsic compression of the iliac veins does not reproduce images consistent with eccentric stenosis as one sees in the arterial system. In an attempt to identify a subgroup of patients where the use of IVUS could be averted, we analyzed and carefully evaluated the images of patients who had both standard contrast venograms and IVUS examinations.

Methods: Ninety-two common femoral and suprainguinal venograms performed during a recent 6-month period were randomly selected for analysis. Good quality venographic images were found in 88 of these limbs (78 patients) that also had IVUS data formed the basis of this analysis. All venograms included visualization of the common femoral, external and common iliac veins, and inferior vena cava. These veins were classified as (1) normal to mild (type I) vein narrowing or dilatation of ≤20% compared with the adjacent segment, (2) moderate (type II) ≥21%-40%, (3) severe (type III) ≥41%, and (4) bull's eye sign (type IV). The latter was defined as a central circle with minimal or no dye within a dilated vein and forking of the dye around the circle.

Results: In the present series, no 1-month mortality or 1-month morbidity was observed in these patients. The Clinical, Etiologic, Anatomic, and Pathologic (CEAP) classification score was class II in 24 cases (26%), class III in 36 cases (39%), class IV in 17 cases (18%), class V in nine cases (10%), and class VI in six cases (7%). There was no venographic or IVUS evidence of inferior vena cava stenosis or dilatation in this series. Of the venograms studied, 88 had positive intravascular ultrasound (PIVUS) or positive predictive value findings. The correlation of venographic findings and PIVUS was as follows: type I cases (26) had 85% PIVUS; type II (22) had 100% PIVUS; type III (25) had 100% PIVUS, and type IV (19) had 100% PIVUS.

Conclusions: The new proposed classification of venographic findings can be used to treat more than two-thirds of the patients without resorting to the use of IVUS.