Renal blood flow in neonates with perinatal asphyxia: quantification with color flow and pulsed doppler ultrasound

ABSTRACT

The aim of this work was to evaluate renal blood flow in asphyxiated newborns using Doppler ultrasonography and assess its value and accuracy in the early detection of renal dysfunction in such cases, thus permitting an early management hence a full recovery of any affected kidney. Twenty-six asphyxiated newborns with a mean gestational age of 39.62 +/- 0.94 weeks and a birth weight of 3.29 +/- 0.60 kg were studied. Twenty clinically healthy neonates matched for sex, gestational and birth weight were included as a control group. The studied cases were classified according to the absence or presence of renal involvement into two groups. The findings of this study suggested that the hypoxic ischemic insult was exerting an effect on the kidneys. Therefore, the presence of documented hypoxic-ischemic insult had an impact on the renal Doppler ultrasonographic measurements despite the absence of clinical and laboratory indices. This highlighted the value of renal Doppler US, with the measurement of RI, as a sensitive noninvasive technique for the early detection of renal dysfunction