International Journal of Health Sciences and Research Vol.10; Issue: 7; July 2020 Website: www.ijhsr.org Original Research Article ISSN: 2249-9571 International Journal of Health Sciences and Research (www.ijhsr.org) 95 Vol.10; Issue: 7; July 2020 Determinants of Intrarenal Vascular Resistance in Congolese Sickle Cell Patients in Kinshasa: A Hospital-Based Study Bazeboso JA 1,2 , Lepira FB 3 , Kayembe PK 4 , Echochard R 5 , Makulo JR 3 , Sumaili EK 3 , Lelo TM 2 , Nkodila AN 7 , Longo BM 7 , Tshilolo L 1, 6 1 Centre Hospitalier Mère et Enfant Monkole, 2 Division of Medical Imaging and 3 Division of Nephrology 3 of the Internal Medicine Department/University of Kinshasa Hospital, 4 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics/Kinshasa school of public health/university of kinshasa, 5 Hospices Civils de Lyon, Service de Biostatistique, F-69424, Lyon, France ; Université de Lyon, F-69000, Lyon, France ; Université Lyon 1, F-69100, Villeurbanne, France ; CNRS, UMR5558, Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, Equipe Biostatistique-Santé, F-69100, Villeurbanne, France, 6 Centre de Formation et d’Appui Sanitaire Monkole 7 Lomo University Reseach Corresponding Author: Bazeboso JA ABSTRACT Objective: The aim of our study was to detect early changes in renovascular resistance through renal Doppler indexes in sickle cell disease (SCD) patients. Methods: By a cross-sectional study, two groups were consecutively examined with duplex ultrasound from 1 January to 30 September 2011. One group consisted of patients with SCD attending the sickle cell outpatient clinic, 61 homozygous (SS pattern, mean age 16 years) and 21 heterozygous (AS pattern, mean age 15 years). The other group was a control group consisting of randomly selected patients who were routinely attending the sonography division for non renal abdominal sonography. All control patients were age matched with patient group (within 1 year) to remove the confounding effect of age. The resistive (RIs) and pulsatility (PIs) indices of the main as well as intrarenal arteries were compared among groups. Results: Homozygous SCD patients had significantly higher RIs and PIs in the intrarenal arteries (P = 0.001) compared to controls while there was no significant differences in RIs and PIs between heterozygous SCD patients and controls. Among SCD patients RIs in the intrarenal arteries positively correlated with eGFR (r = 0.36; p = 0.001), pulse pressure (r = 0.25; p = 0.001), white blood cell (r = 0.36; p = 0.001) and negatively correlated with hemoglobin (r = 0.83; p = 0.001). In multivariate linear regression analysis, the relation persisted only for hemoglobin which explained 61% of the variation of RIs. Conclusion: The present study documents that there are early intrarenal hemodynamic alterations among SCD patients. This implies that the duplex evaluation of the intrarenal arteries, could be a useful non invasive procedure for monitoring SCD patients and could help detect persons at risk of developing SCD nephropathy. Key words: renal vascular resistance, determinants, sickle cell disease, black Africans. INTRODUCTION Sickle cell disease (SCD) and its complications put an immense amount of social and economic burden on the health infrastructure and resources throughout sub- Saharan Africa (SSA) 1-6 . Renal complications affect nearly 30-50% of adults with SCD, leading to notable morbidity and mortality 7,8 . Therefore, early identification and management of SCD