Abstract
While captopril-enhanced renal scintigraphy is acknowledged to be a useful screening technique to detect clinically silent obstructive lesions of the main renal arteries, the presence of significant atherosclerosis of distal, smaller renal vessels as a cause of positive scintigraphy scans has not been reported extensively. In a retrospective 2-year analysis of 31 consecutive captopril-enhanced renal scintigrams, we found a total of 13 studies in 11 patients that were classified as 'positive' for renal artery stenosis. Of these 11 patients with positive scintigraphic studies, 4 patients underwent 5 renal arteriography procedures; only 1 of these renal arteriograms showed significant stenosis of the main renal artery. In the other 4 cases, an angiographic pattern of diffuse intrarenal distal arterial disease correlated with scintigram lateralization. Angiography was also performed in 4 patients with negative captopril renal scintiscans. In each of these cases the arteriogram was also negative for significant renal artery stenosis, and only I patient had diffuse bilateral intrarenal arterial disease. We conclude that distal renal arterial narrowing should be considered in the differential diagnosis of lateralized renal scintigrams. A negative renal scintigraphic study may be more reliable for excluding significant main renal artery obstructive disease.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 923-930 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Renal Failure |
Volume | 18 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1996 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Critical Care and Intensive Care Medicine
- Nephrology