Doppler and Blood Flow Test

What is a Doppler Test?

A doppler, or exer­cies test, is used to mea­sure the strength of blood flow through­out the legs. For the test you may be required to have a Duplex Ultra­sound at a Radi­ol­o­gy prac­tice as well as a vas­cu­lar exer­cise test which can be per­formed at West­Coast Vascular.

Vas­cu­lar test­ing at West­Coast Vas­cu­lar is per­formed by a health­care pro­fes­sion­al known as a vas­cu­lar technician.

The test per­formed is safe and non-inva­sive. You may feel min­i­mal dis­com­fort dur­ing the vas­cu­lar study, such as dur­ing infla­tion of the blood pres­sure cuffs or with the pres­sure of the ultra­sound probe against the skin.

Please wear com­fort­able loose cloth­ing. You will be asked to remove your shoes, socks and stock­ings.  A doppler test takes the fol­low­ing form:

  • Lie down on an exam­i­na­tion couch
  • Mea­sure­ments of the blood flow will be tak­en from the top of the leg, behind the knee, ankles and feet by a hand held ultra­sound machine
  • A small amount of water based gel is applied to the skin before the probe is placed on the skin
  • Blood pres­sure cuffs will be placed around your arms and ankles so that rest­ing pres­sures may be recorded
  • You will need to walk on a tread­mill at your nor­mal walk­ing pace until you expe­ri­ence any clau­di­ca­tion pain or for a max­i­mum of 10 minutes
  • Post-exer­cise blood pres­sure is then recorded

The test nor­mal­ly takes around 30 minutes.

What to bring

All you will need to bring to a Doppler test is your Medicare card or DVA card.

Further Information

If you are con­cerned about your test please call the office on (08) 9386 9855 to dis­cuss your concerns.

Please down­load our Doppler Test infor­ma­tion pam­phlet for furtehr details on a doppler test.

Doppler and Blood Flow Brochure