CONTRAST ENHANCED SPIRAL COMPUTERIZED TOMOGRAPHY IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE UROPATHY AND NORMAL SERUM CREATININE: A SINGLE SESSION FOR ANATOMICAL AND FUNCTIONAL ASSESSMENT

ABSTRACTPurpose: We evaluated contrast enhanced spiral computerized tomography (CT) as a single session for the anatomical and functional assessment of patients with chronic obstructive uropathy and normal serum creatinine.Materials and Methods: The study included 65 patients with unilateral or bilateral chronic renal obstruction and normal serum creatinine. Five patients had bilateral obstruction and the remaining 60 had unilateral obstruction and a normal contralateral kidney. Therefore, the total number of renal units was 130, that is 70 obstructed and 60 normal. All patients underwent contrast enhanced spiral CT together with excretory urography (IVP) and 99Tc-mercaptoacetyltriglycine renal scan. CT was used to identify the cause of obstruction and selectively determine the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) of the 2 kidneys. The diagnostic accuracy of CT for identifying the cause of hydronephrosis was compared with that of IVP. Moreover, a correlation was made between CT GFR and isotope GFR.Results: Ob...