Sonographic Evaluation of Maternal Renal Echogenicity in Healthy Pregnant Women in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

BACKGROUND: 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). OBJECTIVE: To study maternal renal echogenicity in normal pregnancy, and explore its relationship with maternal baseline characteristics in our subregion. METHODS: 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. RESULTS: 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(2)=36.94; p=0.001), parity (χ(2)=64.29; p=0.001), gestational age (χ(2)=16.03; p=0.003) and body mass index (BMI) (χ(2) = 45.15; p – 0.001). CONCLUSION: Our study revealed a significant relationship between maternal renal echogenicity in normal pregnancy and maternal baseline characteristics (age, parity, gestational age and weight).