Renal gallium accumulation in the absence of renal pathology in patients with severe hepatocellular disease.

Visualization of Ga-67 citrate in the kidneys at 48 hours and 72 hours post injection is usually interpreted as evidence of renal pathology. In reviewing approximately 200 consecutive patients referred for gallium scans, 40 patients who also underwent liver/spleen Tc-99m sulfur colloid (SC) studies within one month of the gallium study were identified. Fourteen of these patients showed advanced hepatocellular dysfunction on the Tc-99m SC liver/spleen images. Of these 14 patients, nine had persistent renal accumulation of gallium at 48 or 72 hours. Five of these nine patients had no evidence of primary renal disease by clinical or postmortem examination and subsequent clinical information indicated that two additional patients probably had no significant renal pathology. Therefore, bilateral symmetrically increased renal uptake of gallium in patients with advanced hepatocellular disease should not necessarily be interpreted as evidence of renal pathology.