Pulsed and continuous Doppler evaluation of renal dysfunction after kidney transplantation

Seventy-eight recipients, average age 36 years, of cadaver kidneys were studied to evaluate the usefulness of Doppler ultrasonography for diagnosis of common complications in renal transplant patients. The patients were divided in five groups: Control (normal renal function), acute rejection (AR), acute tubular necrosis (ATN), obstructive uropathy (OU) and pathological vasculature (PV); renal artery stenosis (RAS) and renal artery thrombosis (RAT). Pulsed Doppler ultrasonography (PDUS) was an effective method to diagnose RAS and RAT, but did not sufficiently differentiate between AR and ATN. Despite this, PDUS may be useful for follow-up of renal transplant patients as specific changes in the PDUS curves or differences in successively recorded patterns indicate abnormality, which may initiate more specific diagnostic methods.