Dedicated computer analysis of the radioiodine renogram

One of the problems with renogram quantification is the estimate of the contribution to the kidney counts by extra-renal activity. Britton and Brown have proposed a blood background subtraction method using a three probe system. Esser, et al. have applied this method to a scintillation camera-dedicated computer system. The work reported here is a further extension of this method. Hardware consists of the Gamma-11 nuclear medicine computer manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation. Analysis is through a combination of the Gamma-11 software and a user written program in FOCAL. The entire study consists of four imaging sequences: a $sup 197$Hg static, a $sup 131$IHSA image for background subtraction, the $sup 131$I-Hippuran renogram, and a /sup 99m/Tc-DTPA flow study. Time required for analysis is 15 to 20 minutes, including a three minute computer program run. (auth)