SUPERIOR MESENTERIC-ARTERY AND RENAL-ARTERY BLOOD-FLOW VELOCITY-MEASUREMENTS IN NEONATES - TECHNIQUE AND INTEROBSERVER RELIABILITY

The objective of this study was to establish the interobserver reliabi lity for superior mesenteric artery (SMA) and renal artery (RA) Dopple r blood flow velocity (BFV) measurements in neonates. Forty-two clinic ally stable infants were enrolled, mean (SD) gestational age 33 (2) we eks, birthweight 2.00 (0.54) kg, postnatal age 10 (11) days, Doppler r ecordings were made by two trained observers, The SMA and RA were stud ied with a 5.0-MHz phased array transducer. The optimal spectral trace from each artery containing a minimum of five consecutive waveforms w as analysed. The peak systolic velocity (PS), end diastolic velocity ( ED) and mean peak velocity (MV) were measured and the time-averaged me an velocity (TAV) and waveform indices were calculated, Using the intr aclass correlation coefficient (ICC) the estimates of interobserver re liability for different measurements varied from 0.40 to 0.83. Substan tial agreement was obtained between observers in the TAV, PS, ED and M V; the ICC varied from 0.72 to 0.83 demonstrating that Doppler BFV mea surements of the SMA and RA are reliable in neonates.