SVU Positions & Guidelines

SVU Professional Performance Guidelines and Position Papers

Since November 2011 SVU’s Professional Performance Guidelines Subcommittee, chaired by Ann Needham, RN, RVT, FSVU, has posted four revised SVU Guidelines to the SVU website that are updated versions of old SVU Guidelines. All SVU Guidelines are reviewed every three years to see if they need to be updated. These SVU Vascular Technology Professional Performance Guidelines represent the minimal essential elements of performance as recommended by SVU. They are not designed to replace internally generated, laboratory specific protocols, but to serve as a basis for developing or updating the procedure(s) at your vascular laboratory.

Links to the SVU Guidelines are posted below.

Professional Performance Guidelines

• Screening For Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms (AAA) (2/5/13)
• Mesenteric/Splanchnic Artery Duplex Imaging (2/5/13)
• Upper Extremity Venous Duplex Evaluation (2/5/13)
• Renal Artery Duplex Imaging (11/15/12)
• Lower Extremity Arterial Duplex Evaluation (8/10/12)
• Upper Extremity Vein Mapping for Creation of a Dialysis Access or Peripheral Vascular Bypass Graft (8/10/12)
•  Transcranial Doppler in Pediatric Patients with Sickle Cell Anemia: (Non-Imaging) (04/11/12)
• Evaluation of Dialysis Access (04/11/12)
• Lower Extremity Arterial Segmental Physiologic Evaluation (04/11/12)
• Radial Artery Assessment for Coronary Artery Bypass (04/11/12)
• Intracranial Cerebrovascular Evaluation Transcranial Doppler (Non-Imaging) and Transcranial Duplex Imaging (TCDI) (04/11/12)
• Quality Assurance Guidelines for Accuracy of Examinations in the Vascular Laboratory (3/13/12)
• Upper Extremity Arterial Segmental Physiologic Evaluation (Arterial, TOS, Cold) (revised 12/22/11)
• Lower Extremity Vein Mapping (revised 11/11)
• Upper Extremity Arterial Duplex Evaluation (revised 11/11)
• Abdominal Aortoiliac Duplex Evaluation (revised 11/11)
• Extracranial Cerebrovascular Duplex Ultrasound Evaluation (revised 06/11)
• Lower Extremity Venous Duplex Evaluation (revised 06/11)
• Lower Extremity Venous Insufficiency Evaluation (revised 10/10/10)

These guidelines are an adjunct to SVU's Scope of Practice for the Diagnostic Ultrasound Professional© and the Clinical Practice Standards for the Diagnostic Ultrasound Professional©. They extend and refine those general Standards, which reflect behavior and performance levels expected in clinical practice, to better reflect the day-to-day practice of vascular technology.

The Vascular Technology Professional Performance Guidelines represent the minimal essential elements of performance as recommended by SVU. They are not designed to replace internally generated, laboratory specific protocols, but to serve as a basis for developing or updating the procedure(s) described below. If you have a comment on a specific guideline, please respond to the SVU Executive Director Thomas Stefaniak (tstefaniak@svunet.org).

More guidelines will be added as they are available. Please check back for the latest guidelines.