[Arteriovenous fistula of the kidney--angiography case descriptions]

Individual case reports serve to demonstrate the pathogenetically different renal arteriovenous shunt formations, such as congenital arteriovenous angioma, spontaneous arteriovenous aneurysm, iatrogenic arterio-venous fistula and neoplasia-conditioned arteriovenous fistula. These are discussed in detail, including treatment possibilities. The ranking of digital subtraction angiography is emphasised. Our case reports show that in preoperative diagnosis of pathological structures in the kidney, renovasography is an invaluable tool, especially with i.a. DSA technique, and is superior to all other methods such as sonography, CT, MR and colour-coded Doppler sonography. Due to improved techniques of angiography (markedly lower amounts of contrast medium when using catheters of narrow lumen) indication for i.a. DSA in haematuria of unknown origin should be liberal. Above all, the method should be performed at an early stage. If there is a NAD renal finding in the i.a. DSA renovasogram in renally conditioned haematuria even when using a 1024 x 1024 image matrix, it is advisable to perform selective renal arteriography to either exclude or confirm the existence of an intrarenal angioma, additionally in conventional sheet film technique because of the superior power of resolution.