Vascular Interventional & Vein Associates

A lot of people put off a vascular workup because they picture something invasive. Here is what it actually involves.

Warm gel and a small probe on your skin. You lie down, we watch your blood move in real time, and we can see which valves are leaking or where an artery has narrowed. Nothing to swallow, nothing injected, nothing to recover from.

We do it right here in our office, so you are not sent across town and back. Most people are surprised by how quick and how ordinary it feels.

That is the whole test. Book it and stop wondering.

Compression socks have come a long way. The ones we recommend look like regular socks and nobody can tell.

Here is how they work. They squeeze firmest at the ankle and ease up as they climb, which nudges blood back toward your heart instead of letting it pool in your lower leg.

Three things most people get wrong. Put them on first thing in the morning before your feet hit the floor, while swelling is at its lowest. Stronger is not automatically better, because the highest grade is not the right grade for most legs. And replace them, because once the stretch is gone so is the benefit.

Ask us which grade actually fits your legs.

They both wake you up. They are not the same thing.

A night cramp is a hard, painful knot that seizes the calf out of nowhere and passes in a minute or two, often leaving the muscle sore the next morning.

Restless legs is a crawling, unsettled urge to move that eases the moment you stand up and walk. No knot, no sharp pain, just the feeling that your legs will not settle.

Both usually get blamed on dehydration. Both can also come from vein disease, where blood pooling in the legs irritates everything around it. If either one is visiting most nights, that is worth ruling out rather than living with.

Here is one most people have never heard. When a surgeon performs a coronary bypass and needs a new vessel to route blood around a blockage, one of the most common choices is the great saphenous vein, taken from the patient's own leg.

That vein runs from your ankle all the way up to your groin, which makes it the longest vein in the human body. The leg gets along fine without it, because your deep veins carry the bulk of the work anyway.

It is also the vein most often behind varicose veins. That is exactly why we map it with ultrasound before treating anything, so we know what we are looking at.

Wherever you are on the Treasure Coast, there is a VIVA office close by.

Vero Beach, 960 37th Place, Suite 104. Call 772-567-8482.
Fort Pierce, 2215 Nebraska Avenue, Suite 3-D. Call 772-801-2108.

Both locations have vascular ultrasound on site, so your consultation and your imaging happen in the same visit. We also care for patients coming from Sebastian, Port St. Lucie, Melbourne and Stuart.

Call the office nearest you, or book online whenever it suits you.

Today is World Heart Day, and here is the part that gets missed: heart health does not stop at your chest.

The arteries in your legs clog the same way as the ones around your heart, which is why narrowed leg arteries are often the earliest visible sign that circulation elsewhere needs attention. Treating them is part of protecting your heart and your brain.

Vero Beach 772-567-8482. Fort Pierce 772-801-2108. Board certified, Harvard trained, right here on the Treasure Coast.

A number that explains a lot of missed diagnoses: 63 percent of adults over 40 have never heard of PAD.

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) narrows the arteries that carry blood to your legs and feet. It is common and treatable, but many people do not recognize the name or the warning signs, so symptoms are often mistaken for normal aging. Calf cramping when you walk. One foot that always feels colder than the other. A scrape on your ankle that takes weeks or months to heal.

Now you know what to look for. Recognizing the signs is where better care begins.

One of the most useful tests in vascular medicine takes about ten minutes and uses a blood pressure cuff.

It is called an ankle brachial index. We measure the pressure in your arm, then at your ankle, and compare the two. Healthy legs hold their pressure. A noticeably lower reading at the ankle suggests narrowed arteries in that leg. No needles, no dye, no recovery.

If you are over 50, or over 40 with diabetes or a smoking history, it is worth asking whether this test belongs in your next visit.

A giraffe carries blood pressure high enough to push blood six feet up a neck, which should leave its legs swollen every day. It does not happen, and the reason is oddly familiar.

Giraffe legs are wrapped in a tight sheath of connective tissue that behaves like a support stocking, resisting fluid leaking into the tissue. That is the same principle behind the compression stockings we recommend. Gentle outside pressure helps blood move uphill instead of pooling at your ankles.

Nature figured it out first.

Your heart pushes blood down to your feet. Getting it back up is your calf's job.

Every step squeezes the deep veins in your lower leg and pushes blood upward, while one way valves keep it from sliding back down. Doctors call it the calf muscle pump, and it is why a long day of sitting leaves your legs aching and movement makes them feel better.

Twenty heel raises while the coffee brews. A lap every hour. Ankle circles in the evening. If your legs still feel heavy after all that, the valves may be the issue, and that is treatable.