Acute renal and splenic infarctions: a review

Area of Science:

• Medical imaging and diagnostics
• Vascular and interventional radiology
• Abdominal imaging

Background:

• Renal infarction (RI) and splenic infarction (SI) are related conditions with limited comparative data.
• Understanding their distinct clinical, biological, and radiological features is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the clinical presentations, etiologies, and outcomes of acute renal infarctions (RI) and splenic infarctions (SI).
• To identify factors associated with severe outcomes in patients with RI and SI.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective, multicenter cohort study of patients with RI, SI, or both.
• Inclusion of consecutive cases diagnosed by CT imaging between January 2013 and October 2016.
• Exclusion of infarction causes not requiring further investigation.

Main Results:

• 161 patients analyzed: 34 with RI, 104 with SI, 23 with both.
• Common symptoms included abdominal pain, nausea/vomiting, and fever.
• Etiologies differed: hypercoagulable states with SI; embolic disease and arterial injury with RI.
• Extensive or bilateral infarctions correlated with hemodynamic shock.
• Short-term survival did not significantly differ between groups.

Conclusions:

• Acute RI and SI are heterogeneous conditions regarding presentation, etiology, and thrombosis patterns.
• Despite differences, short-term prognoses for RI and SI are comparable.
• Further research may elucidate long-term outcome disparities.