[Nuclear medicine kidney diagnosis in progressive systemic scleroderma]

Kidney involvement is one of the most frequent causes of death in progressive systemic scleroderma (PSS). It is therefore important to detect potential impairment of renal function in PSS very early. In 76 patients referred for nuclear medicine diagnostic procedures, 42 pathologic results were found with 131I-hippurate clearance, while only 14 abnormal results were detected by static 99mTc-DMSA scans. Hippurate clearance is thus a sensitive method of functional renal evaluation in PSS.