Complementary roles of color-flow duplex imaging and intravascular ultrasound in the diagnosis of renal artery fibromuscular dysplasia: should renal arteriography serve as the "gold standard"?

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to compare color-flow duplex imaging (CFDI), intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), and renal arteriography in diagnosing renal artery (RA) fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD) and correlating with the hemodynamic response to balloon angioplasty (BA) in patients with drug-resistant hypertension.

Background: Renal arteriography is generally regarded as the gold standard for diagnosing RA FMD. The observation that CFDI and IVUS depicted endoluminal abnormalities suggestive of RA FMD in some patients with normal renal arteriograms prompted comparison of these modalities in a consecutive series of patients.