Abstract:
Background: Nuclear medicine in renal diseases is becoming one of the most important modalities of investigation.
Material and methods: The study involved a search of the Pubmed Central database with the keywords renal scintigraphy, renal diseases,
nuclear medicine, kidney function. The retrieved articles were studied and nuclear medicine techniques used for evaluation of kidney diseases
were summarized.
Results: The search revealed 9899 articles, which were subsequently filtered according to their relevance. The results show several groups
of radiopharmaceuticals used for evaluation of renal function and renal abnormalities. Tubular secretion agents such as Tc-99m MAG3 are most commonly used for evaluating renal function, obtaining renograms and a variety of parameters reflecting differential renal
function such as time to peak activity, relative renal uptake ratios at 2 to 3 minutes, half time excretion, differential cortical excretion at 15
minutes, 20-min to peak count ratio, etc. Glomerular filtration agents such as Tc-99m DTPA and 125-I-labeled sodium lothalamate (Glofil)
are commonly used for evaluation of glomerular filtration rate. Renal cortical agents such as Tc-99m DMSA and Tc-99m glucoheptonate
are used for visualization of renal parenchyma due to their ability to bind for a sufficiently long period to the renal tubules, allowing their
visualization. Positron emission tomography agents such as 2-deoxy-2-[fluorine-18]fluoro- D-glucose (18F-FDG) are commonly used for
evaluation of patients with primary renal malignancies or metastatic renal lesions. A variety of other radiopharmaceuticals are also under
development or used for research purposes.
Conclusions: Nuclear medicine is increasingly being used in patients with various renal abnormalities and its area of applications is expanding.
Description:
Department of Radiology and Imaging, Nicolae Testemitanu State University of Medicine and Pharmacy
Chisinau, the Republic of Moldova,
The IVth Congress of Radiology and Medical Imaging of the Republic of Moldova with international participation, Chisinau, May 31 – June 2, 2018