Renal arterial resistive index as a marker of renal allograft dysfunction in early postoperative period

The aim of this study was to assess of the renal arterial resistive index(Ri) of renal transplant recipients to prevent allograf dysfunction and evaluate the effect of the treatment.

We examined 53 patients who had cadaveric donor kidney transplantation in the Organ and Tissue Transplant Centre of the 9^th Minsk City Hospital. The study included clinical information, laboratory tests and Doppler ultrasonography of allograft.

We examined 28 (52.8%) males and 25 (47.2%) females. The age of patients was 45 ± 1,6 year. Most patients (64.2%) had chronic renal failure caused by chronic glomerulonephritis. The postoperative period was characterized by delayed function and acute allograft rejection on 11 (20,8%) patients. They had a higher Ri than the patients with immediate function (0,83±0,3 and 0,71±0,2 respectively). These recipients had high blood pressure in early postoperative period and these uNGAL levels increased on the first postoperative day. The Ri was lower on the 7^th postoperative day after active therapeutic and surgical measures in these patients (0,77±0,1). The Ri value was correlated with creatinine level (p<0,01). We found no significant differences between the Ri value in patients with delayed function and patients with acute allograft rejection. This fact indicates that the dysfunction is caused by hemodynamic problems.These results suggest that Doppler ultrasound of the kidney transplant in the early postoperative period can diagnose graft dysfunction and evaluate the success of the therapy.