Editorial Comment: Doppler ultrasonography and hypertensive target organ damage

Recent advance in the ultrasonography enables to evaluate both morphological and functional changes non-invasively. Renal Doppler ultrasonography is useful to identify renal arterial stenosis by measuring acceleration time, renal aorta ratio (RAR) of peak systolic velocity (PSV) and resistive index (RI) (1, 2). Renal arterial stenosis can be diagnosed with 90 to 95% of sensitivity and specificity, when PSV is more then 1.8 m/sec, RAR more than 3.5 and difference of RI between stenotic and nonstenotic site in the kidneys is more than 1.5 (1, 2).