Part of the expanding PassProfessor catalog: The Registered Vascular Specialist (RVS) is Cardiovascular Credentialing International’s registry credential for professionals working in vascular ultrasound. The RVS examination is a three-hour, computer-based examination of 170 questions — 150 scored and 20 unscored — built on CCI’s job task analysis and examination matrix, reported on a scaled range of 0 to 900 with a total scaled score of 650 required to pass. Candidates qualify through CCI’s published education and experience pathways. PassProfessor’s RVS program is in development at $59.
This program is part of the expanding PassProfessor catalog — join the notify list and we’ll email you when enrollment opens.
The RVS names vascular ultrasound as a specialty in its own right: the work spans five territories, and punishes shallow preparation. PassProfessor’s RVS program is in development as part of the expanding PassProfessor catalog, built on the examination matrix and qualification pathways CCI publishes at cci-online.org for the Registered Vascular Specialist examination. The program will be priced at $59 when enrollment opens.
Which cardiovascular credential is this?
This page covers RVS — the Registered Vascular Specialist credential from Cardiovascular Credentialing International (CCI) — for professionals working in vascular ultrasound. Three clarifications. First, CCI’s credentials are distinct examinations with distinct pathways and matrices: RVS is not the RCIS, the RCS or the RCES, and study toward one does not substitute for another’s blueprint. Nor is it the RPhS, which examines venous ultrasound specifically; the RVS examines vascular ultrasound across all of its territories. Second, RVS is a professional credential, not a state license, and CCI states it does not endorse or recommend any third-party review course or material — this program is independent preparation. Third, eligibility is documentary: CCI approves an application against a named pathway, with typed documentation, before any examination date exists. The RVS is CCI’s vascular credential — not ARDMS’s RVT, a different body’s examination with its own prerequisites.
What will the program cover?
Practice mapped to the published outline, area by area. The program is being built on the certifying body’s own published content structure for this examination, organized around the areas the outline itself defines, as recorded in the table below. Preparation time lands where the examination itself puts the emphasis, instead of spreading evenly across ground the outline treats unevenly.
Results you can read by content area. Because practice will be organized by the outline’s areas, your results can be read area by area — a thin area shows while there is still time to repair it.
Original questions, written from the outline outward. When the program opens, every question will be an original PassProfessor practice question written to the published outline and current authoritative sources for this field. None will be an actual examination item, a recalled item, or another provider’s material, and no question will ask you to recite a code, section number or citation — knowledge is tested, citations never are.
Timed practice at the real sitting’s shape. The program’s design includes sustained timed practice modeled on the recorded facts of the real sitting — its length and pace as set out in the fact table below — so pacing is trained rather than discovered on the day. That design is PassProfessor’s preparation choice; the real examination’s own facts stand in their own table.
The real exam at a glance
| Fact of record | Detail |
|---|---|
| Credential | Registered Vascular Specialist (RVS) |
| Awarding body | Cardiovascular Credentialing International (CCI) |
| Examination | Three-hour computer-based examination of 170 questions: 150 scored and 20 unscored, indistinguishable from scored items. Two hours and fifty minutes are allotted to the questions, plus ten minutes for the tutorial and post-exam survey |
| Question types | Traditional multiple-choice plus CCI’s innovative item types — multiple-response, hot-spot and drag-and-place items (see the format note) |
| Delivery | Pearson VUE test centers, year-round; a 90-day eligibility window opens when CCI approves the application |
| Scoring | Total scores reported on a scale of 0 to 900; a total scaled score of 650 is required to pass, set by a standard-setting study. CCI states the scaled score does not equal a number or percentage of correct answers |
| Results | Unofficial score report at the test center with pass/fail status and the percentage of questions answered correctly in each content area; official results letter, certificate and wallet card from CCI in approximately 15 business days |
| Examination fee | $365 USD, including a $100 non-refundable application-processing fee (CCI-published figure) |
| Maintenance | First renewal: fee only, no CEUs, due in the following year. Thereafter triennial: renewal fee plus 36 CEUs per cycle for registry-level credentials, 30 of them cardiovascular-related, as CCI publishes |
| Program price | $59 (PassProfessor program price, when enrollment opens) |
How will practice map to the outline?
| Content area | Share of the examination |
|---|---|
| Maintaining patient care and safety | 11% |
| Applying principles of physics and hemodynamics | 15% |
| Performing abdominal and visceral examinations | 10% |
| Performing extracranial and intracranial examinations | 20% |
| Performing arterial examinations of the upper and lower extremities | 22% |
| Performing venous examinations of the upper and lower extremities | 19% |
| Performing hemodialysis examinations | 3% |
What does Maintaining patient care and safety cover? (11%)
The professional frame around the vascular study: identifying and assessing the patient; verifying the appropriateness of the examination and recognizing contraindications; eliciting history and risk factors; positioning; identifying and documenting critical findings; precautions and sterile technique; ergonomic safety; quality assurance; bioeffect safety and equipment care; and generating preliminary findings for physician interpretation. The report and the escalation are examined as the specialist’s own work.
How should you prepare for Maintaining patient care and safety? Survey the area early, note where your reasoning breaks down, and return with focused practice rather than rereading. The work here rewards applied judgment in realistic situations, so pair every block of reading with timed practice, then examine why each wrong option was wrong. Keep a running list of the distinctions this area tests most finely, and revisit the area in mixed practice before you test, so competence does not depend on knowing the topic in advance.
What does Applying principles of physics and hemodynamics cover? (15%)
The instrument understood, not just operated: equipment setup — transducer selection and presets; the optimal gray-scale image; hemodynamic principles; and optimizing each data channel — pulsed-wave, continuous-wave, color and power Doppler — while detecting artifacts and reasoning about their causes. Physics is the lens through which every later territory is read.
How should you prepare for Applying principles of physics and hemodynamics? Start with the area’s core decisions and work outward to its edge cases. Preparation should alternate short reading blocks with timed questions on the same material, because retrieval under time pressure is the skill the sitting itself demands. Log every miss by cause — knowledge gap, misread situation, or wrong priority — since each cause has a different repair, and lumping them together hides the pattern your next study block should attack.
What does Performing abdominal and visceral examinations cover? (10%)
The central vascular territories: renal duplex; mesenteric duplex; abdominal aortoiliac duplex, including endovascular repair; iliocaval duplex, including venous stents; and organ transplant duplex. Each study is examined as a performance — windows, optimization and judgment — in anatomy where depth, bowel gas and post-intervention change punish shallow technique.
How should you prepare for Performing abdominal and visceral examinations? Treat this area as a set of decisions, not a set of facts: for each topic, ask what the practitioner must notice first, what must happen next, and what must never happen. Practise in timed blocks, review every error the same day, and return to the area after a gap of several days so that retention, not recognition, is what carries you.
What does Performing extracranial and intracranial examinations cover? (20%)
A fifth of the examination on the vessels of the neck and brain: extracranial duplex; transcranial Doppler, imaging and non-imaging; and extracranial post-intervention duplex. Carotid disease, vertebral flow and intracranial assessment carry direct stroke implications — criteria application, and recognizing when findings change management, are the discriminating skills here.
How should you prepare for Performing extracranial and intracranial examinations? Build a one-page map of this area before drilling it: its central concepts, its recurring traps, and the situations in which its rules change. Then work timed practice against that map, correcting the map whenever a question exposes a gap in it. Finish the area with mixed practice alongside earlier areas, so the knowledge has to be selected, not merely recalled.
What does Performing arterial examinations of the upper and lower extremities cover? (22%)
The examination’s largest area: extremity arterial duplex; post-intervention assessment of grafts and stents; segmental pressures and ankle-brachial indices; pulse volume recording; exercise testing; specialty physiologic testing — Allen’s test, cold sensitivity, thoracic outlet, popliteal entrapment; and post-procedure complications: pseudoaneurysm, arteriovenous fistula, hematoma. The duplex and physiologic halves of vascular testing meet here, and both are examined.
How should you prepare for Performing arterial examinations of the upper and lower extremities? Survey the area early, note where your reasoning breaks down, and return with focused practice rather than rereading. The work here rewards applied judgment in realistic situations, so pair every block of reading with timed practice, then examine why each wrong option was wrong. Keep a running list of the distinctions this area tests most finely, and revisit the area in mixed practice before you test, so competence does not depend on knowing the topic in advance.
What does Performing venous examinations of the upper and lower extremities cover? (19%)
The venous half of peripheral practice: extremity venous duplex; lower-extremity venous insufficiency testing; vein mapping; and peri-procedural venous assessment, including ablation and PICC-related studies. Compression technique, reflux assessment and mapping discipline are examined as performances — the candidate who can only repeat a protocol is exactly who this area separates out.
How should you prepare for Performing venous examinations of the upper and lower extremities? Start with the area’s core decisions and work outward to its edge cases. Preparation should alternate short reading blocks with timed questions on the same material, because retrieval under time pressure is the skill the sitting itself demands. Log every miss by cause — knowledge gap, misread situation, or wrong priority — since each cause has a different repair, and lumping them together hides the pattern your next study block should attack.
What does Performing hemodialysis examinations cover? (3%)
The smallest area by weight and a complete specialty in miniature: the hemodialysis access examination, and pre- and post-operative testing around access creation and revision. Three percent is roughly five scored questions — few enough to neglect, specific enough that the results will show it.
How should you prepare for Performing hemodialysis examinations? Treat this area as a set of decisions, not a set of facts: for each topic, ask what the practitioner must notice first, what must happen next, and what must never happen. Practise in timed blocks, review every error the same day, and return to the area after a gap of several days so that retention, not recognition, is what carries you.
How is the RVS examination scored?
CCI reports total scores on a scale from 0 to 900, and a total scaled score of 650 is required to pass. CCI is explicit about what that number is not: a scaled score does not equal the number or percentage of questions answered correctly. The number of correct answers needed to reach 650 was determined through a standard-setting study, and CCI reviews the passing score periodically with specialty expert panels. Your score is based on the 150 scored questions; the 20 unscored questions are randomly distributed and unidentified, so CCI can evaluate items for future examinations. At the test center you receive an unofficial report with your total score, pass/fail status and a per-area breakdown of questions answered correctly — that breakdown, not the scaled number, is the diagnostic tool for a candidate who must sit again.
Who can take the RVS examination?
Every CCI applicant must hold a high school diploma or GED, meet one of the credential’s qualification pathways, and provide typed documentation supporting the pathway claimed; CCI may request additional information, and processing takes a minimum of 15–20 business days. The pathways are:
- RVS235 — a graduate of a diploma, associate or baccalaureate health science program (cardiovascular technology, ultrasound, radiologic technology, respiratory therapy, nursing and similar), plus one year of full-time vascular ultrasound experience, plus a minimum of 600 vascular ultrasound studies in the applicant’s career, counting work and formal-program clinical experience.
- RVS4 — a graduate of a programmatically accredited program in vascular ultrasound.
- RVS5 — a graduate of a non-programmatically accredited program in vascular ultrasound with at least one year of specialty training including at least 800 clinical hours in the specialty.
- RVS6 — an active ultrasound credential holder with six months of full-time or full-time-equivalent work experience in vascular ultrasound and participation in a minimum of 100 vascular ultrasound studies.
CCI sunset the former RVS1 pathway effective June 30, 2023: first-time applicants on or after July 1, 2023 select from the pathways above. Once approved, CCI issues an Authorization to Test and a 90-day window opens; the examination is scheduled with Pearson VUE. CCI also operates a pre-application process for criminal matters ($50, non-refundable), as CCI publishes it.
How should you use this page while the program is in development?
- Join the notify list today. Enrollment is not open yet; the notify list is how you hear when it is. While you wait, read the exam guide — it walks the outline area by area and lays out eligibility, scoring and study planning in full.
- Study from the official outline now. The published outline quoted on this page is the syllabus; organizing your reading by its areas and weights is useful work today.
- When the program opens, survey every area first. Early practice should touch each area, so your first area-by-area picture of yourself is honest.
- Drill the area that costs you. Let results, not preferences, set the next block — outlines reward the candidate with no thin area.
- Finish with timed, mixed practice. Sit full timed practice at the real pace, and test when practice is consistently strong across areas.
Frequently asked questions
What is the RVS credential? The Registered Vascular Specialist: CCI’s credential for professionals working in vascular ultrasound, awarded on passing CCI’s 170-question examination after qualifying through one of CCI’s published pathways.
How many questions are on the examination? 170 questions in a three-hour sitting: 150 scored and 20 unscored. Two hours and fifty minutes are allotted to the questions, with ten minutes for the tutorial and post-exam survey. The unscored questions are not identified.
What score do I need to pass? A total scaled score of 650 on CCI’s 0–900 scale. CCI states that scaled scores do not equal a number or percentage of correct answers; the standard was set by a standard-setting study and is reviewed periodically with specialty expert panels.
Does the examination include non-multiple-choice items? Yes. Alongside traditional multiple-choice items, CCI uses innovative item types — multiple-response, hot-spot and drag-and-place items. This program is question-based preparation for the knowledge those items examine; it does not reproduce the hot-spot or drag-and-place mechanics. The exam guide covers this in full.
How do I know if I am eligible? CCI publishes named qualification pathways combining education, credentials and experience, summarized in the eligibility section above, with a pathway tool on CCI’s site. You must also hold a high school diploma or GED and document the pathway you claim; CCI approves the application before your 90-day testing window opens.
Are these CCI’s actual examination questions? No. When this program opens, its questions will be original practice questions written by PassProfessor to CCI’s published examination matrix. We never use actual examination items, recalled items, or another provider’s material. CCI does not endorse third-party review materials, and this program claims no endorsement.
How long do I have to test once CCI approves me? Approval opens a 90-day eligibility window: CCI emails your Authorization to Test, typically within two business days of approval, and the examination is scheduled with Pearson VUE inside that window. One 90-day extension may be requested through your CCI account.
Is the RVS the same as the RVT or the RPhS? No, on both counts. The RVT is ARDMS’s vascular credential — a different body, a different examination and different prerequisites. The RPhS is CCI’s own specialty credential for venous ultrasound specifically; the RVS covers vascular ultrasound across arterial, venous, extracranial, abdominal and hemodialysis territories. Each credential is earned on its own examination.
What happened to the RVS1 pathway? CCI sunset it: the RVS1 qualification prerequisite ended effective June 30, 2023, and first-time applicants on or after July 1, 2023 select from RVS235, RVS4, RVS5 or RVS6. Candidates who qualified under RVS1 before the sunset should confirm their position with CCI directly.
When will enrollment open? The program is in development. Join the notify list on this page and we will email you when enrollment opens at the $59 program price.
Disclaimer
PassProfessor is an independent exam-preparation provider; this program is not endorsed by, affiliated with or sponsored by CCI. The credential name is used on this page as a factual reference to the certifying body’s examination. This program is examination preparation only: examination details on this page are drawn from the official sources recorded in the companion guide and are current as of November 2026; the certifying body’s official publications govern if anything here differs from them. The credential is awarded by CCI alone when all of its requirements are complete; this program confers no credential or license.