Arterious-venous fistula (AVF) represents the first-choice vascular access for haemodialysis. Pre-surgery evaluation is mandatory to identify the appropriate vessels and to predict the success of AVF creation. Echo-color Doppler provides a wealth of morphological and functional values useful to create an optimal vascular access for haemodialysis. The purpose of this study has been to identify pre-surgery echo-color Doppler parameters useful to predict AVF maturation. 44 patients were enrolled, and 44 AVF created. During pre-surgery evaluation we collected the following data: cephalic vein and radial artery calibers; radial artery flow and caliber; flow and resistive index (RI) of the brachial artery. We also performed a reactive hyperemia test. During the post-surgery evaluation after 30 days, we collected: AVF flow; resistive index of the brachial artery; post-anastomosis cephalic vein caliber. The results showed a direct correlation between AVF flow and some parameters: cephalic vein, radial artery and brachial artery caliber, reduction of RI after reactive hyperemia test and, in the post-surgery evaluation, between AVF flow and post-anastomosis cephalic vein caliber. We divided patients into two groups: "A", representative of AVF adequate maturation, and "B", representative of AVF early failure (EF) and AVF failure to mature (FTM). We observed some statistically significant differences in the two groups. With the creation of Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves we identified two parameters able to predict the AVF outcome (Δ IR = 0.15; Δ flow = 150 ml/m). This study identifies pre-surgery echo-color Doppler parameters that could be useful, together with others, to predict the outcome of the AVF creation.
Keywords: arterious-venous fistula; echo-color Doppler; fistula flow; reactive hyperemia; resistive index.
Copyright by Società Italiana di Nefrologia SIN, Rome, Italy.