Renal scintigraphy with captopril in the diagnosis of renovascular hypertension

: Altogether 16 patients with arterial hypertension (AH) were examined. Of these, 11 were with stenosis of renal arteries, 4 had essential hypertension (EH) and I with nephrogenous parenchymatous AH. To estimate the influence of captopril on the total and separate renal function in patients with and without stenosis of renal arteries and the possibility of the use of the given pharmacological test in the diagnosis of renovascular hypertension (RVH), all the patients underwent renal scintigraphy with 99Tc-DTPA on admission to the hospital and 1-7 days after a single intake of 25 mg captopril per os. Later on in the operated patients the results of the test were compared with the hypotensive effect of the surgery. The rate of glomerular filtration (RGF) was measured according to the Gates method. In patients with stenosis of renal arteries and EH, the total filtration renal function remained unchanged after the intake of a single dose of captopril. In patients with stenosis of renal arteries, there was a significant decrease of the RGF on the side of stenosis made for by an insignificant elevation of the RGF in the contralateral kidney, which was accompanied by an increase of asymmetry of the renograms. In patients with no hypotensive effect of the surgery, the test with captopril was negative, which supports the possibility of this test application in the diagnosis of RVH.