The Relationship Between the Renal Resistive Index and End Organ Damage Parameters in Hypertensive Pediatric Patients: Resistivity Index and End Organ Damage Parameters

Background and Aim: This study aimed to investigate the strength of the relationshipbetween renal resistive index with left ventricular mass index, microalbuminuria, andretinopathy to find a predictive value of the renal resistive index in early detection ofend-organ damage.Methods: Pediatric patients diagnosed with hypertension were included in this study betweenJanuary 2020 and January 2022.Results: A total of 41 consecutive patients who were never treated for essential hypertensionwere included in this study. Microalbuminuria was detected in 10 patients (24%).Retinopathy was detected in only 2 patients (4.9%). Echocardiographic data were availablein 25 patients. The mean left ventricular mass index was 30±10 (17-53 g/m2.7). Three malepatients (12%) had left ventricular hypertrophy but none of the females had left ventricularhypertrophy. We categorized the patients into two groups according to the presence ofmicroalbuminuria and compared the two groups. The value of the renal resistive index in themicroalbuminuric group was significantly higher than in the nonalbuminuric group (0.8±0.2vs. 0.6±0.2, P=0.047). We found a positive correlation between renal resistive index andurine microalbumin (r=0.636, P=0.014). In regression analysis, higher resistive index valueswere independently associated with microalbuminuria but not left ventricular hypertrophy.(OR=-0.633, 95% CI 24.4-187.2, P=0.015)Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first study to analyze the correlation of RI withmicroalbuminuria in hypertensive children. We found a significantly higher resistive indexin patients with microalbuminuria; we also found a correlation between these variables.This shows that this finding and an abnormal resistive index can be used as early signs ofhypertension.