Fibromuscular Dysplasia Duplex Ultrasound

As fibromuscular dysplasia can affect arteries in different areas of the body the symptoms can be quite variable. High blood pressure is commonly a symptom in patients who have fibromuscular dysplasia in their renal arteries. Headache, tinnitus and dizziness are commonly reported where patients have fibromuscular dysplasia in their carotid arteries. Other transient ischaemic attack (mini-stroke) symptoms can also occur with fibromuscular dysplasia.

Whenever you have an ultrasound scan of you abdominal or peripheral arteries the sonographer will be looking for changes in the blood flow and any abnormalities of the artery wall. If your doctor is concerned about the possible presence of fibromuscular dysplasia they will usually ask for you to have a carotid artery duplex ultrasound or renal artery duplex ultrasound, however in some cases they may ask the sonographer to look in other areas of your body.

The sonographer will perform the normal ultrasound scan but will ensure that they specifically note any wall changes that they find. The images below demonstrate fibromuscular dysplasia wall changes that the sonographer will be looking for. These images are of a renal artery (the artery taking blood to the kidney). The wall changes are often described as looking like a “string of beads”.