Diagnostic Significance of Arterial Resistance Index (RI) in Diabetic Nephropathy

Introduction & Aims: To compare Doppler ultrasound RI values to clinical and laboratory findings in patients with diabetic nephropathy. Patients & Methods: Doppler ultrasound was performed on 45 patients with diabetes type-2 and 30 healthy controls. Diabetic patients were divided into 3 groups based on the severity of their nephropathy, based on the serum level of creatinine and 24 hours urine protein. Clinical and laboratory findings of the cases and controls were also recorded. Results: Mean RI was 0.59 for controls, 0.67 for diabetic nephropathy stage I, 0.72 for stage II, and 0.85 for stage III. The variable RI was significantly associated with 24-hour urine protein and creatinine (respective correlation coefficients 0.87 and 0.83). A suitable regression model was adopted to predict 24-hour urine pro-tein and serum creatinine based on the RI. Conclusion: RI increases with progression of diabetic nephropathy. Furthermore, RI can be used for close es-timation of 24-hour urine protein and serum creatinine to determine the stage of nephropathy especially for patients who are cannot cooperate for 24-hour urine protein test.