[The role of nuclear medicine in renovascular pathology of urologic significance].

Abstract

The diagnostic contribution of the radiological techniques (intravenous urography, angiography, sonography, computer tomography) is well-known. On the contrary, in this field, the possibilities of the Nuclear Medicine are underestimated. Radiological methods have high detail recognition but are only suitable for assessing the functional significance of morphological changes in a restricted sense; in the last 25 years, nuclear medical renal diagnosis has achieved a differentiated development stage which permits new qualitative and quantitative tests. The radioisotopic methods offer morphological informations which surely are less exact than those given by radiological techniques, on the other hand they add irreplaceable parameters of functional significance; these parameters concern the perfusion and the accumulation and excretion constants of selected areas of interest in renal districts. This is made possible by a wide choice of radiopharmaceuticals, having a different dynamic pattern and biodistribution. The Authors consider scintigraphic imaging of different renal pathologies: trauma, characterized by hypoperfusion; hematoma and/or urinoma; pseudotumor and carcinoma. Nuclear medical techniques allow in nearly all the cases a rapid and exact diagnostic guidance. The AA. emphasize the absence of invasiveness, the simplicity and the good compliance of these methods in all patients, even if seriously ill, and the usefulness in follow-up and diagnosis of several pathological conditions. Finally, they underline the absence of an appreciable radiobiological hazard.