Putting Hemodynamics at the Center: A Systemic Approach to Teaching Vascular Ultrasound, Miriam Teft, MBA, RDMS, RVT (https://doi.org/10.1177/87564793221096778) from the Journal of Diagnostic Medical Sonography is a must-read for the novice vascular ultrasound student and their educators and mentors to develop a solid, evidence-based appreciation of what vascular sonography offers to the clinician treating patients. As the author explains, “understanding hemodynamic principles is key to using waveform morphology as a diagnostic tool.”
A systemic framework for teaching vascular sonography that is centered on hemodynamics is useful to unify the initial test-by-test approach that developed with the pioneering and expansion of the field. The author notes, “Vascular sonography education is most powerful when taught with a system-level view of the circulation that connects how vascular anatomy (form) and physiology (function) are inextricably linked with hemodynamics (flow).”
Teaching a system-based, hemodynamic-centered perspective aligns with the objectives of the recent Consensus Statement on Doppler Waveforms by the Society for Vascular Medicine and the Society for Vascular Ultrasound and equips the vascular sonography student to recognize, understand, and appropriately document vascular findings (see https://doi.org/10.1177/1544316720943099 for the Consensus Statement).
The systemic, hemodynamic-centered framework offered in this article by vascular technologist Miriam Teft provides foundational reasoning about the significance of varying anatomic and physiologic attributes of vascular structures, as well as patterns of waveform morphology. To practice peripheral vascular ultrasound in a clinical setting, the clinical sonographer must understand the physiological effects associated with the multitude of hemodynamic abnormalities. There is no substitute for doing the homework during your clinical training. This contribution should be read over-and-over again alongside the Consensus Statement on Doppler Waveforms by all those performing peripheral vascular ultrasound exams.