Steady-state captopril renography: continuous monitoring of the captopril-induced increase in 99mTc-MAG3 mean parenchymal transit time in renovascular hypertension.

Steady-state captopril renography (SSCR) is an original technique for assessing the captopril-induced increase in technetium-99m mercaptoacetyltriglycine (99mTc-MAG3) mean parenchymal transit time (MPTT) in kidneys affected with functional renal artery stenosis (RAS). The steady-state parenchymal activity achieved by constant infusion of 99mTc-MAG3 is directly linked to the MPTT of the radiopharmaceutical. This steady-state parenchymal activity was continuously monitored from 15 min before to 60 min after a single dose of captopril in order to detect possible disruption of the steady state. SSCR was performed in 11 hypertensive patients with unilateral RAS and in two with RAS of a solitary kidney before renal revascularization (RR). In four of these patients, an additional SSCR was performed after RR. Of the ten patients whose hypertension was cured or improved by RR, one presented an uninterpretable SSCR and six presented a positive SSCR on the affected side. Control SSCR performed in four of these six patients was bilaterally negative. SSCR was also bilaterally negative in the three patients who showed no blood pressure response to RR. These preliminary results tend to indicate that, in spite of the stability of pre- and post-captopril hydration and data acquisition conditions allowed by this steady-state technique, the sensitivity is lower than expected. However, the reason for the false-negative results does not seem to be inherent to SSCR.