Posttransplant renal monitoring with B-flow ultrasonography

B-flow ultrasonography (BFU) is a new technology to detect blood circulation. It has been developed by using digitally encoded sonography, showing higher spatial and temporal resolution than Doppler imaging because of the clearer definition of the vessel lumen. Our study was performed on 55 patients, including 37 men (67.3%) and 18 women (32.7%), of overall mean age of 45.8 years (range = 16-60 who underwent kidney transplantation from deceased donors. The patients underwent an ultrasonography check postoperatively with successive daily controls to compare evaluations with both techniques: the combination of color and power Doppler versus BFU. In 25 patients (45.5%), visualization of cortical blood flow was clearer than with the standard techniques. The parameters of intrarenal circulation were easy to measure. In conclusion, BFU was effective to visualize hemodynamic flow and to detect stenotic lesions in the renal artery. Combined with the conventional B-mode technique, BFU seems to be useful in the evaluation of renal anasthamotic stenosis, especially among patients with vascular diseases.