Evaluation of renal transplants with pulsed Doppler duplex sonography

Sixty-seven patients who had had renal transplants were examined 184 times by pulsed Doppler duplex sonography, and a pulsed Doppler index (PDI) was developed to provide an indicator of renal blood-flow patterns. Arterial Doppler signals were obtained from transplant vessels during all technically satisfactory examinations of viable allografts; interpretations of transplant status based on the PDI and clinical function studies agreed with radionuclide renogram diagnoses in more than 90 per cent of cases when both sonograms and renograms were available. Pulsed Doppler analysis may differentiate between arterial occlusion and severe rejection and may decrease the need for radionuclide studies in some patients.