Renal duplex Doppler ultrasonography as a predictor of preclinical diabetic nephropathy in children

Purpose: To perform Doppler US in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) as a predictive method in diabetic nephropathy (DN). Material and Methods. Twenty-five patients with type I diabetes mellitus underwent renal Doppler US examination. Children were divided into three age groups: group I, 3-7 years; group II? 8-10 years; and group III, 11-18 years. The age-matched control group consisted of 56 healthy children who underwent renal Doppler US only. Results. The mean values of the resistive index (RI) were, respectively, 0.64+/-0.03, 0.59+/-0.04, 0.59+/-0.02 in age groups I, II, and III for healthy children and 0.68+/-0.03, 0.62+/-0.04, 0.59+/-0.04 in age groups I, II, and III of the diabetic patients. There were no significant differences between the diabetic and healthy subjects. The mean RI value was not different in the patients with glomerular hyperfiltration compared to patients with normal filtration rate. Additionally, there were no significant differences between the mean RI value in patients with or without microalbuminuria. Conclusion. Renal Doppler US is not useful for prediction or for early diagnosis of DN.