Cholesterol emboli syndrome--uncommon or unrecognized?

Cholesterol emboli syndrome is a multisystem disorder that can be precipitated by angiographic procedures. We report 5 cases in which the presentation was renal failure. All patients had undergone angiography, but the temporal relation of the procedure to the clinical presentation was highly variable, the interval ranging from one day to four months. With the increase in diagnostic and therapeutic uses of angiography, the cholesterol emboli syndrome is likely to become more frequent and needs to be recognized.