The relationship of renal resistive index and carotis intima media thickness in patients with diabetic microalbuminuria

Diabetes is a chronic disease with increasing morbidity and mortality. Microalbuminuria is seen in diabetic patients due to nephropathy. Patients with microalbuminuria are at high risk for atherosclerosis. It is thought that comparing the carotid artery, which is most frequently affected by atherosclerosis, by measuring and comparing the renal resistive index, may be beneficial for early diagnosis and treatment of diabetic complications. Our study included 108 patients with diabetic microalbuminuria. Carotid intima media thickness (CIMT) and renal resistive index (RRI) measured, who applied to Adana Numune Training and Research Hospital between January and November 2016. We aimed to evaluate the patients with normal-abnormal RRI and normal-abnormal CIMT. The patients' diabetes age, weight, height, fasting blood sugar, HbA1c, and creatinine parameters were compared. We observed an increase in RRI in parallel with the increase in CIMT in diabetic microalbuminuric patients (p<0,001). There was also a positive correlation between the creatinine value and the RRI (p:0.021). The increase in creatinine was significantly associated with the increase in CIMT(p<0.001). However, we could not detect the similar correlation with body mass index (BMI) in terms of both RRI andCIMT. RRI measurement can be performed together with CIMT measurement for early detection of atherosclerosis. Patients with microalbuminuria and prone to atherosclerosis that cannot be detected by measurement of CIMT can be detected by measurement of the RRI.