Abstract
Introduction: Hypertension (HTN) is considered as one of the most common health problems. Doppler sonography plays an effective role in haemodynamic assessment of renal arteries in patients with essential HTN.
Aim: To assess renal vascular Resistive Index (RI) in patients with essential HTN in co-existence with Diabetes Mellitus (DM) and Ischemic Heart Disease (IHD).
Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study which involved 100 hypertensive patients selected by a simple, convenient sampling method from June 2014 to August 2016. The participants were categorised into four groups; 55 patients with controlled HTN while the uncontrolled HTN groups included 20 with HTN coupled with DM, 18 with HTN and IHD, and seven patients of HTN accompanied by both DM and IHD. The patients were investigated using Duplex Doppler ultrasonography to assess the RI of the renal arteries. Analysis of variance and Student's t-test were performed to compare renal RI values between controlled and uncontrolled hypertensives.
Results: The mean renal RI in patients with controlled HTN was 0.59 +/- 0.093, 0.71 +/- 0.035 in DM, 0.70 +/- 0.029 in IHD, and 0.72 +/- 0.029 in patients with IHD and DM. Controlled hypertension revealed a stable blood RI across the renal arteries (RI=0.59 +/- 0.093). The renal RI was significantly higher in patients with DM, IHD and DM+IHD group compared to patients with controlled HTN (p-values=0.004, 0.014 and 0.001).
Conclusion: The renal RI is an important parameter which provides useful information about haemodynamics of renal arteries in essential HTN complicated with DM and IHD.