title: Relevance of resistive index ultrasonographic measurement in renal transplantation.
abstract: The usefulness of the ultrasonographic measurement of resistive index (RI) is not yet fully understood. To obtain a better definition of its relevance in renal disease we studied this parameter in a group of 212 renal transplant patients, aged between 15 and 55 years: 81 first grafts with an excellent renal function, 44 hypertensive patients, 30 type II diabetics, 29 cases of chronic graft dysfunction, 28 cases during an episode of acute rejection. RI was measured in three different renal vascular areas: prerenal, interlobar and cortical. A two-way analysis of variance showed a statistical significance for the site of RI sampling and the type of pathology. There was no interaction between the two variables studied (p = 0.30). Plasma creatinine levels, analyzed as covariate, showed a high statistical correlation with RI values (p = 0.0001). The mean RI of the 80 transplanted patients with normal creatinine plasma levels showed a remarkable homogeneity and a statistically significant progressive reduction of the values from the main renal artery to the interlobar and cortical vessels (p = 0.00001). In the other groups a greater dispersion of data was present. RI values significantly increased in hypertensive and diabetic patients (p = 0.05) but more in acute rejection (p = 0.0001) or chronic graft dysfunction (p = 0.01). In acute rejection and in chronic graft dysfunction the curve of RI values tended to become flat, while in hypertensive and diabetic patients the aspect of the curve became steeper. In conclusion, RI is a hemodynamic index that reflects the vascular status of the explored area and is not only the simple expression of reduction of the kidney functional units. The differences observed in the various kidney areas stress the importance of measuring this parameter at more than one vascular site. The increase in RI values on the kidney cortex vessels is likely to be an index of glomerular hyperfiltration. If this hypothesis is true the measure of RI might be a reliable method for diagnosing in the kidney vascular damage, glomerular hypertension and hypertrophy.
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Medicina Interna, Università di Milano, Italia.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Quarto di Palo
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rivolta
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Elli
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Castagnone
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D048909:Diabetes Complications; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D005260:Female; D006084:Graft Rejection / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D006977:Hypertension, Renal / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D007668:Kidney / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D007677:Kidney Function Tests; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012079:Renal Circulation / Q000502:physiology; D018615:Ultrasonography, Doppler, Color