Is there a place for duplex screening of the brachial artery in the maturation of arteriovenous fistulas?
Clinically there are some autogenous arteriovenous fistulas (AVFs) that are obviously mature. The real problem in clinical evaluation is in predicting the ultimate outcome of AVFs that are not clearly mature. Thus it would be advantageous to develop objective quantitative criteria to be applied early after vascular access placement in order to evaluate the suitability of AVFs for dialysis. The goal of this study was to document the blood flow rate modifications that the construction and maturation of a radiocephalic wrist AVF produce in the brachial artery by means of duplex Doppler ultrasonography. All incident uremic patients who needed the construction of a radiocephalic wrist AVF in the last 9 months of 2003 were enrolled in the study: 18 patients underwent such an operation. A linear color Doppler ultrasound scan was performed with a 7.0 MHz imaging/5.0 MHz Doppler probe by sampling the brachial artery 2 cm above the elbow: the internal diameter of the artery was measured and its
