Astandardter of the type designed for recording sounds within the heart has been successfully used by investigators at the Cleveland Clinic to obtain indirect measurement of the renal artery pulse.
In a first report of an extensive clinical trial of this technique, introduced three years ago, William S. Kiser, MD, told the Third International Congress of Nephrology that pulse variations diagnostic of renal vascular lesions can be obtained by inserting the catheter into the ureter.
Phonorenograms
In patients with unilateral renal artery stenosis, the "phonorenograms" obtained by this method consistently demonstrated a distinct reduction in the amplitude of the transmitted pulse as compared to the pulse registered on the normal side.As with most renal function tests, however, the technique is of little diagnostic value when both sides are equally involved.In a comparative study of 25 hypertensive patients with renal artery disease, results obtained with the phonocatheter correlated more