Gallium 67 scintigraphy in glomerular disease

Journal Article · Thu Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1988

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0272-6386(88)80098-2· OSTI ID:6786124

Bakir, A A; Lopez-Majano, V; Levy, P S; Rhee, H L; Dunea, G

To evaluate the diagnostic usefulness of gallium 67 scintigraphy in glomerular disease, 45 patients with various glomerulopathies, excluding lupus nephritis and renal vasculitis, were studied. Persistent renal visualization 48 hours after the gallium injection, a positive scintigram, was graded as + (less than), ++ (equal to), and +++ (greater than) the hepatic uptake. Positive scintigrams were seen in ten of 16 cases of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, six of 11 cases of proliferative glomerulonephritis, and one case of minimal change, and one of two cases of membranous nephropathy; also in three of six cases of sickle glomerulopathy, two cases of diabetic neuropathy, one of two cases of amyloidosis, and one case of mild chronic allograft rejection. The 25 patients with positive scans were younger than the 20 with negative scans (31 +/- 12 v 42 +/- 17 years; P less than 0.01), and exhibited greater proteinuria (8.19 +/- 7.96 v 2.9 +/- 2.3 S/d; P less than 0.01) and lower serum creatinine values (2 +/- 2 v 4.1 +/- 2.8 mg/dL; P less than 0.01). The amount of proteinuria correlated directly with the intensity grade of the gallium image (P less than 0.02), but there was no correlation between the biopsy diagnosis and the outcome of the gallium scan. It was concluded that gallium scintigraphy is not useful in the differential diagnosis of the glomerular diseases under discussion. Younger patients with good renal function and heavy proteinuria are likely to have a positive renal scintigram regardless of the underlying glomerulopathy.

• Research Organization: Cook County Hospital, Chicago, IL (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6786124
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

550601* -- Medicine-- Unsealed Radionuclides in Diagnostics
62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BODY
COUNTING TECHNIQUES
DAYS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
DIAGNOSIS
DIAGNOSTIC TECHNIQUES
DISEASES
ELECTRON CAPTURE RADIOISOTOPES
GALLIUM 67
GALLIUM ISOTOPES
INTERMEDIATE MASS NUCLEI
ISOTOPES
KIDNEYS
NUCLEI
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
ORGANS
PATIENTS
RADIOISOTOPE SCANNING
RADIOISOTOPES
SCINTISCANNING
UROGENITAL SYSTEM DISEASES