Quantitation of renal blood flow by contrast ultrasonography: preliminary results

Contrast ultrasonography, employing tracers behaving like red blood cells, is a promising technique to study regional blood flow distribution. Aim of this note is to quantitate renal blood flow in the dog using contrast ultrasonography. Mathematical formulae derived from the classical dye-dilution theory are applied. Ten different renal blood flow levels (ranging from 16 to 125 ml/min) were obtained by means of mechanical (stenosis and reperfusion) and pharmacological interventions (iv infusion of adrenaline, noradrenaline and fenoldopam). Renal blood flow was measured by electromagnetic flow-meter and contemporary calculated by contrast ultrasonography. The correlation coefficient between measured and calculated flow was 0.92 (p less than 0.01). Contrast ultrasonography is a technique capable of measuring renal blood flow at a wide range of different flow levels.