Renal functional response to dopamine during and after arteriography in patients with chronic renal insufficiency

The potential renal vasodilatory effect of dopamine in improving renal function after arteriography was studied. Sixty patients with preexisting renal insufficiency were prospectively randomized into two groups. Patients in the treated group (n = 30) received an infusion of dopamine for 12 hours starting at the beginning of arteriography. Patients who received placebo infusion with arteriography (n = 30) served as controls. The study was conducted in two different time intervals. In the first interval, serum creatinine levels and 12-hour creatinine clearance values were obtained before and immediately after arteriography in 12 patients in the dopamine group and 13 patients in the control group. In the second interval, the same variables were measured before arteriography and for 3 consecutive days after arteriography in 18 patients in the dopamine group and 17 patients in the control group. Serum creatinine levels became significantly elevated in the control group on the 1st day and remained so on the 3rd day after arteriography, whereas the dopamine group did not show significant elevation of these levels. Creatinine clearance decreased in the control group on the 1st day, but this deterioration was not sustained on the 3rd day. In the dopamine group, there was no deterioration in creatinine clearance on either day, and mean effective renal plasma flow during and after arteriography was greater.