Nuclear Medicine Procedures for the Diagnosis of Acute and Chronic Renal Failure

Abstract

The focus of this review is on the current role of nuclear imaging studies in the clinical evaluation of patients with acute and chronic renal failure. In this setting nuclear imaging has two roles: diagnostic and prognostic, indicating that these methods are an essential component in the evaluation of renal diseases. The functional assessment of the kidney by nuclear medicine procedures is based on the use of radioisotopes bound to non-metabolized molecules with known pharmacokinetics. Renal scintigraphy is usually applied for the assessment of renal function expressed as glomerular filtration rate, effective renal plasma flow or more generally kidney perfusion. Newer methods rely on positron emission tomography, which allows the generation of images with higher resolution and absolute quantitation of biological processes such as transport activities, enzyme activities or angiotensin receptors.