Is there a correlation between the CEAP score and the histopathological findings in varicose disease?

BACKGROUND Varicose disease continues to represent an interesting subject. The factors triggering and maintaining vascular and cutaneous tissues alterations in chronic venous insufficiency are not fully known. PATIENTS AND METHODS This is a prospective, statistical analysis study, performed in a consecutive series of 40 patients with varicose disease admitted and treated at the Surgical Clinic II, Cluj-Napoca. The aim of the paper is to evidence histopathological (HP) changes in the vein wall, as well as to correlate histopathological findings, classified into stages, with the clinical stage of chronic venous insufficiency (CEAP classification). Statistical analysis was performed using the Fischer F-test for the comparison of the variances of two selections and the Student t-test for the comparison of the means. For correlation, Pearson's simple correlation coefficient was used. The software used was Excel and Matlab 7. RESULTS Following the statistical analysis, the mean of CEAP values was found to be higher than the mean of the histopathological stage values in all patients included in the study and in the different risk groups. The values of Pearson's linear correlation coefficient between CEAP values and histopathological stage values did not generally show a statistically significant correlation. CONCLUSIONS CEAP classification remains the main pillar in the diagnosis and the treatment of varicose disease, even if there are some dissimilarities between the clinical appearance and the histopathological results. The presence of a correlation between histological and clinical aspects in varicose disease remains uncertain.