[Functional scintigraphy in the follow-up of transplants]

Nuclear medicine procedures have special indications in the follow-up of transplanted patients: In case of renal transplantation perfusion, function (glomerular filtration) and urinary flow measured by bolus application of 99mTc-DTPA is an important tool to detect and monitor acute tubular necrosis, rejection, urinary leakage, obstruction or vascular complications. This method is used for pancreatic grafts, too. To exclude rejection in case of heart transplantation more than one year after operation the antimyosin antibody scintigraphy is introduced avoiding biopsies. The radionuclide ventriculography is able to monitor heart function by determining the ejection fraction. Cholescintigraphy in liver transplants is sensitive to detect complications of bile flow. In case of an auxiliary liver transplantation a competition between two livers has been described. This method allows a distinction of functional performance of donor and recipient liver. The same problem is solved by ventilation-perfusion scan in lung transplants. Bone scintigraphy is of prognostic value for graft viability. Other radionuclide examinations have been developed to measure perfusion, glucose-, fat-metabolism to detect rejection episodes, abscesses or tumor recurrencies.