Usefulness of Routine Renal Sonography Screening for
Healthy Infants with Isolated Single Umbilical Artery

Kang, Ju-Mi; Song, Eun-Song; Kuk, Jin-Hwa; Lee, Hyung-Sin; Kim, So-Young; Choi, Young-Youn

Original Article

Journal of the Korean Pediatric Society 2003;46(9):854-857.
Published online September 15, 2003.

Usefulness of Routine Renal Sonography Screening for Healthy Infants with Isolated Single Umbilical Artery

Ju-Mi Kang¹, Eun-Song Song², Jin-Hwa Kuk², Hyung-Sin Lee¹, So-Young Kim¹, Young-Youn Choi²

¹Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea
²Department of Pediatrics, Chonnam National University Medical School, Gwangju, Korea

단일 제대 동맥을 가진 건강한 신생아에서 신장 초음파 검사의 유용성

강주미^¹^, 송은송^²^, 국진화^²^, 이형신^¹^, 김소영^¹^, 최영륜^²

^¹가톨릭대학교 의과대학 소아과학교실
^²전남대학교 의과대학 소아과학교실

Correspondence:
Young-Youn Choi, Email: yychoi@chonnam.ac.kr

Abstract

Purpose
: It is known that single umbilical artery is frequently associated with gastrointestinal or urogenital anomaly, however, routine renal sonography has been debated in healthy neonate with isolated single umbilical artery. This study is designed to determine the usefulness of routine renal sonography in apparently healthy infants with an isolated single umbilical artery.
Methods
: Thirty healthy neonates with a single umbilical artery without a major anomaly from January 1995 to July 2002 were enrolled. The authors investigated the clinical background of babies and their mothers after renal sonography after 72 hours of age. When the abnormalities were found at the first renal sonography, the severity of hydronephrosis and degree of obstruction and renal function were analyzed by follow up renal sonography, voiding cystourethrography(VCUG) and technetium-99m-dimercaptosuccinic acid(DMSA) scan or technetium-99m-mercaptoacetyl-triglycerine (MAG3) scan.
Results
: Among the 30 healthy patients with isolated single umbilical artery, five patients(16.7%) showed abnormalities on first renal sonography with one major(3.3%) and four(13.4%) minor renal anomaly(minimal or mild hydroneohrosis). One major renal anomaly(severe hydronephrosis) showed severe decreased renal function on MAG3 scan without reflux, and the other four minor regressed spontaneously on follow up study.
Conclusion
: The value of routine early renal sonograpy for detecting renal anomaly in healthy infants with an isolated single umbilical artery remained unclear because most of the anomalies would regress spontaneously in the follow up study.

Key Words: Single umbilical artery, Renal sonography, Renal anomaly