Abstract

The rising morbidity and mortality from end-stage renal disease (ESRD) among children in sub-Saharan Africa and Nigeria is now a primary health concern. Due to this, an accurate, simple, affordable, non-invasive method for early diagnosis of renal diseases in children is needed to prevent progression to ESRD. In this prospective, cross-sectional study among children with no evidence of clinical and pathologic abnormalities, we investigated the intrarenal Doppler indices and their relationship with participants’ demographics. One hundred and thirty-one children with no clinical or laboratory pathologic abnormalities from age 3 to 10 years, and a total of 262 kidneys were evaluated. Significant statistical differences exist in the pulsatility index (PI), resistivity index (RI), and acceleration time (AT) among the different age groups of the studied children population. Children aged 2 to 3 years had statistically significant higher PI (mean = 0.99, 95% CI of mean = 0.95; 1.04) than in children aged 7 to 8 years and 9 to 10 years (mean = 0.88, 95% CI of mean = 0.83; 0.94). The RI showed similar trend, while AT was also significant but in the opposite direction. Age, weight, and height showed significant correlations with PI, RI, AT, and Systolic/Diastolic ratio(S/D). Age and weight also had correlations with renal lengths. This study thus revealed that normative data for each age group were reasonably similar to those from other parts of the world. Intra-renal PI, RI, and S/D declines with age but stabilize at 6 to 8 years. The parameters showed dependency on age, weight, and height in normal healthy children.

Key words: Healthy children, Doppler, renal disease, reference values.