Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa, Nigeria.
Department of Radiology, Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital, Okolobiri, Nigeria.
Ethiop J Health Sci. 2023 May;33(3):471-478. doi: 10.4314/ejhs.v33i3.10.
Increased renal echogenicity is a nonspecific ultrasound finding. It may be a normal variation or suggestive of various underlying conditions like renal amyloidosis, chronic kidney disease, sickle cell disease and HIV associated nephropathy (HIVAN).
To study maternal renal echogenicity in normal pregnancy, and explore its relationship with maternal baseline characteristics in our subregion.
This descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted in the Obstetrics and Radiology Units of the two tertiary health facilities, one secondary facility and one radio-diagnostic facility, all in Bayelsa State, South-South Nigeria, between March-August 2022. The relationships between maternal renal echogenicity and age, parity and gestational age were explored using Chi-square test of proportion, while with an analysis of variance (ANOVA), the mean difference of age, weight and height between the grades of renal echogenicity was investigated. Kruskal Wallis test was deployed to examine parity in the grades of renal echogenicity. The level of significance was set at p<0.05.
The study participants that had Grade 0, 1 and 2 renal echogenicity were 160 (39.7%), 403 (58.3%) and 8 (2.0%), respectively. There were statistically significant relationships between maternal renal echogenicity and maternal age (χ=36.94; p=0.001), parity (χ=64.29; p=0.001), gestational age (χ=16.03; p=0.003) and body mass index (BMI) (χ = 45.15; p - 0.001).
Our study revealed a significant relationship between maternal renal echogenicity in normal pregnancy and maternal baseline characteristics (age, parity, gestational age and weight).
肾回声增强是一种非特异性的超声表现。它可能是一种正常变异，也可能提示各种潜在疾病，如肾淀粉样变性、慢性肾脏病、镰状细胞病和 HIV 相关肾病（HIVAN）。
研究正常妊娠中母体的肾脏回声强度，并探讨其与本地区母体基线特征的关系。
这是一项描述性、横断面研究，在尼日利亚南南地区贝宁州的两家三级医疗机构、一家二级医疗机构和一家放射诊断机构的妇产科和放射科进行。使用比例的卡方检验探讨了母体肾回声强度与年龄、产次和孕周的关系，而使用方差分析（ANOVA），则分析了不同肾回声强度等级之间的年龄、体重和身高的平均差异。采用 Kruskal Wallis 检验研究了产次在肾回声强度等级中的分布情况。显著性水平设定为 p<0.05。
本研究中，肾回声强度为 0 级、1 级和 2 级的研究参与者分别为 160 名（39.7%）、403 名（58.3%）和 8 名（2.0%）。母体肾回声强度与母体年龄（χ=36.94；p=0.001）、产次（χ=64.29；p=0.001）、孕周（χ=16.03；p=0.003）和体重指数（BMI）（χ=45.15；p-0.001）之间存在统计学显著关系。
我们的研究表明，正常妊娠中母体肾回声强度与母体基线特征（年龄、产次、孕周和体重）之间存在显著关系。
