Effect of Gender on Symptom Discrepancy in Venous Disease

Introduction, Objectives, and/or Purpose: Patients present for initial evaluation of varicose veins and lower extremity venous disease at various stages of disease severity. We sought to evaluate effect of gender on presenting complaint, correlation with degree of venous reflux and vein size, effect on social and occupational function at the time of initial evaluation and degree of improvement following intervention. Our hypothesis is that male and female patients experience differing degrees of symptom severity and have a discrepant experience in terms of social/occupational function in setting of venous disease. As a result, they may be preferentially treated with thermal or non-thermal treatments.

Objectives:
1. Provide statistical comparison of the results between two clinical groups (male and female) at baseline with respect to presenting complaint, anatomy, degree of venous insufficiency, compression garment use
2. Evaluate proportions of patients undergoing each treatment type (EVLT, RFA, CAC, PEM) by gender
3. Provide statistical comparison prior to and following treatment in terms of VCSS, VVSQ and SF6D scores

Methods: The AVLS PRO Venous Registry contains data from 2014-present. The database is owned by the American Vein & Lymphatic Society (AVLS of Chicago, IL). The query was directed toward all patients entering participating centers, including most recent data available as of March 2023.
Demographic variables analyzed include Gender, Age, Sex, Race, BMI. Clinical symptoms, presenting and follow up measures include CEAP class, VCSS score, VVSQ scores, SSFD score, as well as presenting complaint. Duplex values were interrogated in superficial and deep lower extremity veins to distinguish groups of patients with isolated superficial pathology, mixed deep and superficial pathology, and isolated deep vein pathology.

Results: We have recently received the data extracted from the database for this project and are currently in the process statistical analysis. We are working with a professional statistician for data analysis.
We greatly appreciate your consideration of our project for presentation as we eagerly await results of statistical analysis, and fully expect to have it completed at the time of presentation.

Conclusion(s): As evidence of discrepant symptoms and outcomes of female patients with cardiovascular disease is increasingly available, it has become relevant to evaluate the effect of venous disease on women. We hope to elucidate whether women present at different stage of symptom severity, experience different social/occupational impacts, achieve the same degree of symptom relief, or receive different treatments than male patients affected by lower extremity venous disease.