Direct assessment of effective renal plasma flow from renoscintigraphy with a gamma camera and an on-line computer.

A concept of a kidney uptake coefficient (UC) of 131I-o-hippurate was developed by analogy from the corresponding kidney clearance of blood plasma in the early period after injection of the hippurate. The UC for each kidney was defined as the count-rate over its ROI at a time shorter than the peak in the renoscintigraphic curve divided by the integral of the count-rate curve over the "blood"-ROI. A procedure for normalization of both curves against each other was also developed. The total kidney clearance of the hippurate was determined from the function of plasma activity concentration vs. time after a single injection; the determinations were made at 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 45, 60, 75 and 90 min after intravenous administration of 131I-o-hippurate and the best-fit curve was obtained by means of the least-square method. When the UC was related to the absolute value of the clearance a positive linear correlation was found (r = 0.922, p greater than 0.99). Using this regression equation the clearance could be estimated in reverse from the uptake coefficient calculated solely on the basis of the renoscintigraphic curves without blood sampling. The errors of the estimate are compatible with the requirement of a fast appraisal of renal function for purpose of clinical diagnosis.