Objective To define the relations between age, sex, lower limb symptoms, and the presence of trunk varicose veins on clinical examination. Design Cross sectional population study. Setting 12 general practices with catchment areas geographically and socioeconomically distributed throughout Edinburgh. Participants An age stratified random sample of 1566 people (699 men and 867 women) aged 18-64 selected from the computerised age-sex registers of participating practices. Main outcome measures Self administered questionnaire on the presence of lower limb symptoms and physical examination to determine the presence and severity of varicose veins. Results Women were significantly more likely than men to report lower limb symptoms such as heaviness or tension, swelling, aching, restless legs, cramps, and itching. The prevalence of symptoms tended to increase with age in both sexes. In men, only itching was significantly related to the presence and severity of trunk varices (linear test for trend, P = 0.011). In women there was a significant relation between trunk varices and the symptoms of heaviness or tension (P<0.001), aching (P<0.001), and itching (P<0.005). However, the level of agreement between the presence of symptoms and trunk varices was too low to be of clinical value, especially in men. Conclusions Even in the presence of trunk varices, most lower limb symptoms probably have a non-venous cause. Surgical extirpation of trunk varices is unlikely to ameliorate such symptoms in most patients.
Although the prevalence of advanced atherosclerosis was very low, small changes in IMT were associated with clinically significant development of atherosclerosis in the peripheral arteries. However, further longitudinal studies are needed that standardize measurement techniques and would allow accurate comparisons across studies.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.