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Abstract
Diuretic renal scintigraphy was developed in the 1970s as a non invasive method to diagnose and follow up patients with hydronephrosis and obstructive uropathy and remains the noninvasive functional study of choice in these patients. Over the years, a wide variety of protocols and techniques have been developed. Unfortunately, this has contributed to increase the variability in the interpretive criteria among the different nuclear medicine departments. For an appropiate interpretation of the diuretic renography and to avoid and minimize the number of indetermined studies it is essential a meticulous attention to details such as hydration of the child, radiopharmaceutical selection, dosage and time of Furosemide administration, bladder status and effect of gravity and an awareness of the potential pitfalls of the technique. For most patients the F+20 protocol is sufficient, however the F-15 protocol allows clarification in some equivocal baseline F+20 studies. Invasive techniques such as the Whitaker test are best reserved for the group in whom the diagnosis remains equivocal after diuretic renography. The new guidelines published and the protocols recommended by the recent international consensus panels have contributed to increase the reproducibility of the technique.
Keywords : Diuretic Renography, radiopharmaceuticals, Tc99mMAG3, pitfalls, guidelines, consensus panels
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