PubMed1976
The authors present their first results concerning the use of renal scintigraphic scanning using hippuran in acute renal failure (A.R.F.). The tubular stages of hippuran, extraction and secretion then excretion correspond to phenomena which are normally apparent within the first 10 minutes following the injection of hippuran, also it seemed interesting to study the changes which occur in A.R.F. 18 hospital in-patients with A.R.F. were studied, 10 of them suffering from tubulointerstitial nephropathy (T.I.N.) 4 with acute glomerulonephritis (A.G.N.), 2 with obstruction of the urinary pathways and 2 with tubular necrosis on underlying chronic renal failure. In the 10 cases of T.I.N. the phenomenon of extraction was evident without any sign of secretion appearing during the 24 minutes of the investigation. No relationship could be found between the scintigram and the rapidity of recovery from A.R.F., but 8/10 recovered satisfactory renal function, the two others died from their disease, the A.R.F. being only secondary. Two of the 4 cases of A.G.N. had normal or slightly lowered extraction and minimal or absent secretion, and they recovered, in the 2 others no image of extraction appeared within 24 mn. and in these 2 cases the course was unfavorable. Finally, the last four had evident extraction and for 3 of them the course was favorable, the death of the fourth being consecutive to the primary disease. It therefore seems that the presence of an extraction phenomenon, whatever the aetiology of the A.R.F., is a parameter which authorizes the prognosis of a favorable course whereas its absence during the 24 mn. of the investigation permits one to envisage an unfavorable course.