Diagnosis and visualization of renal artery stenosis with color-coded duplex sonography comparison between central and peripheral flow patterns.

Purpose: Comparison between central and peripheral flow patterns with color -coded duplex sonography in the diagnosis of renal artery stenosis. Materia ls and methods: In a prospective study with sixty-six patients systolic vel ocity (central examination) and acceleration index (peripheral examination) were determined using color-coded duplex sonography examination in order t o detect and visualize renal artery stenosis. If the central and peripheral measurements were negative, no angiography was performed. in contrast, if one of the methods yielded a pathological finding, catheter angiography was performed to verify the results (21 patients), as well as in two other unc lear cases. Results: An agreement between central and peripheral measuring was seen in 49 of 66 patients. In ten patients central and peripheral measu rements showed different results. In seven cases the peripheral measurement s were not clear. Compared to angiography, peripheral measurement showed a sensitivity of 60 %, a specificity of 75% and a positive predictive Value o f 81.8%. In contrast, central examination had a sensitivity of 100 %, a spe cificity of 75% and a positive predictive value of 88.2%. Conclusions: Base d on our preliminary results, the measurement of the systolic velocity peak seems to be an effective method to detect renal artery stenosis.