Radiology, Vol 196, 667-673, Copyright © 1995 by Radiological Society of North America

ARTICLES

Normal renal artery spectral Doppler waveform: a closer look

EJ Halpern, CR Deane, L Needleman, DA Merton and SA East
Department of Radiology, Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, PA 19107-5244, USA.

PURPOSE: To characterize the spectral Doppler tracing of the normal renal artery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Doppler tracings were obtained from a phantom of a vessel with variable compliance and from the kidneys of 15 healthy volunteers. RESULTS: In the phantom, vascular compliance had the following effects on systolic flow velocity patterns: low compliance, little change in the sharp appearance of the systolic component of the transmitted pulse; mildly increased compliance, down-stream dampening of early systolic acceleration (ESA) with the appearance of a sharp early systolic transmitted peak and of a more rounded late systolic compliance peak; high compliance, delayed and diminished transmitted peak that eventually disappeared within the enlarging down-stream compliance peak. Healthy subjects with compliant vessels had greater ESA and more frequently visualized early systolic peaks in the renal hilum than in the renal sinus. CONCLUSION: Absence of a discrete early systolic peak is a normal finding in young patients, especially in the more distal interlobar arteries. Loss of the early systolic peak may be explained on the basis of vascular compliance.

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