CORRELATION OF THE ARTERIAL RESISTIVE INDEX IN PANCREAS TRANSPLANTS OF PATIENTS WITH TRANSPLANT REJECTION

OBJECTIVE. This study was undertaken to determine whether arterial res istive indexes (RIs) in pancreas transplants correlate with biopsy-pro ven transplant rejection. MATERIALS AND METHODS. We retrospectively re viewed arterial RIs in pancreas transplants for all patients who under went Doppler sonography within 1 week before transcystoscopic or percu taneous biopsy of pancreas transplants. RIs were correlated with type and degree of rejection in the 20 transplants for which biopsies provi ded sufficient tissue for diagnosis, Three patients were subsequently eliminated from the study because of significant intervening therapy b etween sonography and biopsy, RESULTS. The nine transplants with no ev idence of rejection had a mean arterial RI of 0.64 (range, 0.49-0.80). The six transplants with acute mild or moderate rejection had a mean RI of 0.67 (range, 0.56-0.73). The two transplants with acute severe r ejection had a mean RI of 0.85 (range, 0.80-0.90), We found no statist ically significant difference between arterial RIs in pancreas transpl ants of patients with acute mild or acute moderate rejection and those with no evidence of rejection, CONCLUSION, Arterial RIs of pancreas t ransplants do not differentiate between acute mild or acute moderate r ejection and absence of rejection. The higher mean value of arterial R Is in pancreas transplants with acute severe rejection suggests that e levated arterial RIs are sensitive, but not specific, for revealing ac ute severe rejection of pancreas transplants, However, our study data are limited, and a larger sample size is necessary to draw statistical ly significant conclusions.