Vascular Health Screening

Are you at risk from Cardiovascular Disease?

The Whiteley Clinic can offer you a vascular health ultrasound scan to assess your Cardiovascular risk.

Do you suffer from:

• High blood pressure (This condition contributes to the stress and strain on all your circulation)
• High cholesterol (Increases the build up in your blood vessel walls)
• Diabetes (Blood vessels become narrow and hard)
• Are you a smoker? (Smoking contributes to around 40,000 heart and vascular disease deaths per years in the UK)

Other contributary factors are:

• Are you overweight?
• Do you take little or no exercise?

Do you have a family history of:

Strokes (This is the 3rd most common cause of death in the UK and can cause severe non fatal disability)

Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (1 in 20 people in the UK over 65 develop an AAA- Men are 6 x more likely to have an aortic aneurysm than women)

Cardiac (heart) disease (accounts for 36 % of all deaths in the UK)

Lower limb arterial disease (1/5 of the population, over the age of 60, in developed countries has peripheral arterial disease)

These conditions can result in an increased risk of developing a life threatening disease or causing a significant disability. Most of these are preventable, can be treated successfully and respond well to early diagnosis and intervention.

If the answer is yes to one or more of the above questions and because often the symptoms of these conditions are ‘’silent’’, you may benefit from a Vascular Health Ultrasound Screen at the Whiteley Clinic. In so doing you can find out about the health of your blood vessels.

We use ultrasound, which is a safe and relatively inexpensive modality, to assess the condition of the main blood vessels of the body. We look for abnormal dilatations (aneurysms), for the formation of ‘’plaque’’ or build up in the vessel walls and blockages, and so ultrasound can give a ‘’window’’ into the overall health of your vascular system.

By examining the Aorta, Carotid arteries and the main leg arteries it can be determined what risk you may have of suffering any long-term affects from these conditions or genetic factors.

You do not need a GP referral for this self-funding procedure. A report will be given to you on the day.

If any significant abnormality is detected on your screening ultrasound you can be referred back to your GP for care or directly on to one of our experienced vascular consultants at The Whiteley Clinic for advice, further tests and treatment.