Epidemiological characterization of chronic venous insufficiency in Portugal.

Abstract

With the objective of studying the spectrum of clinical manifestations of Chronic Venous Insufficiency (CVI), we conducted an epidemiological survey in 17 of the 20 districts in Portugal. This study involved 436 general practitioners and 8243 consecutive attendants of the national health service aged 15 and over, who were inquired for symptoms and signs of CVI. The diagnosis of CVI was established on clinical grounds by the physicians, who recorded data on demography, associated diseases, past history, symptoms, physical signs, and characteristics and location of varicose veins. These data were combined with the estimates of prevalence of CVI obtained in a previous study on 45,000 individuals and with the results of the population census of 1991 to obtain age and sex adjusted population prevalences of the disease manifestations. The results show that the prevalence of CVI, radicular and troncular varices, and troncular varices is 20, 12 and 6% in males and 40, 22 and 10% in females. The prevalence of grade 0, 1, 2 and 3 CVI is 2, 10, 6 and 3% in males and 4, 22, 12 and 4% in females. The prevalence of a history of phlebitis and venous thrombosis is 4.5 and 1.3% in males and 8.9 and 1.5% in females. The prevalence of chronic venous ulcer, either active and inactive, is 3.2% in males and 3.9% in females. These data indicate that the situation of CVI in Portugal is similar to that reported in other European countries.