Glomerular filtration rate in adults estimated from 123iodine-hippuran and 99mtechnetium-diethylenetriaminepenta-acetic acid gamma camera renography.

In a retrospective study a close relationship was found between the rate constant for renal clearance of the radioactive indicator (lambda pk) and the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) measured by 51Cr-EDTA plasma clearance. The material comprised eighteen adult subjects submitted to 123I-hippuran gamma camera renography (IHGR) and twenty-two adult subjects to 99mTc-DTPA gamma camera renography (TDGR). The rate constant was calculated from a bi-exponential decomposition of the activity-time curve recorded within a small region of interest over the left ventricle. The total cleared renal fraction (TCRF) of the cardiac output with respect to the radioactive indicator has previously been shown to be closely related to GFR. A pooled estimate of GFR (GFRp) was calculated from the stochastically independent estimates of GFR based on lambda pk and TCRF. The comparison of GFRp with measured GFR was satisfactory and yielded substantially smaller standard deviations (SD) of GFRp than estimates based on lambda pk and TCRF separately. The standard deviations of GFRp were about 7 and 12 ml/min/1.73 m2 in IHGR for GFR equal to 50 and 100 ml/min/1.73 m2, respectively. The corresponding SD in TDGR were about 7 and 11 ml/min/1.73 m2. These standard deviations are sufficiently small for many clinical purposes and the method requires no blood samples or urine collections.