Relationship between renal resistive index and inflammation in untreated hypertensive patients

The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between renal resistive index and inflammation in untreated hypertensive patients. Sixty-one hypertensive patients (male/female: 38/23, aged 45.8 +/- 8.3 years, and mean hypertension duration 28.2 +/- 35.6 months) and 40 (male/female: 23/17, aged 42.7 +/- 8.5 years) healthy control subjects were included in the study. Renal resistive index was positively correlated with age (P = 0.016, r = 0.308), pulse pressure (P = 0.022, r = 0.294), C-reactive protein (P = 0.00, r = 0.757), urinary albumin excretion (P = 0.003, r = 0.371) and negatively correlated with creatinine clearance (P = 0.042, r = -0.262) in the hypertensive group. The hypertensive group was further divided in two groups according to the renal resistive index; < 0.60 and > 0.60. In the > 0.60 group, age (48.0 +/- 7.3 versus 42.8 +/- 8.9 years, P = 0.01) and C-reactive protein levels (7.4 +/- 1.5 versus 4.0 +/- 1.6 mg/L, P = 0.01) were higher, and creatinine clearance (95.5 +/- 22.1 versus 109.1 +/- 25.3 mL/min, P = 0.04) was lower than the < 0.60 group. Renal resistive index was higher in the nondippers than the dippers (0.61 +/- 0.04 versus 0.58 +/- 0.03, P = 0.003). Renal resistive index is associated with inflammation and may be a useful marker, together with albuminuria, in hypertensive patients when evaluating hypertensive renal damage.