Spontaneous return of renal flow and function on technetium-99m scan in a patient with renal artery thrombosis following angioplasty

Failure to visualize a kidney on radionuclide scanning using technetium-99m (^99mTc) chelates and other renal radiopharmaceuticals such as iodine-131 hippuran has been described as potentially misleading in patients who have acute renal failure due to acute tubular necrosis and urinary tract obstruction. Such failure has not been described in a single kidney nor following angioplasty. The authors report a patient in whom a kidney was not visualized on ^99mTc diethylenetriamine penta-acetic acid dynamic and serial scanning 3 days after renal angioplasty. The kidney was believed to be infarcted. Three months later there was almost complete recovery of renal function.