• Yusuke Inoue and Kuni Ohtomo.
• Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Kitasato University School of Medicine, Sagamihara, Japan. inoueys34@gmail.com
• Clin Nucl Med. 2011 Nov 1;36(11):1012-6.

PurposeTo establish camera-based methods for estimating Tc-99m mercaptoacetyltriglycine (MAG3) clearance without blood sampling.Materials And MethodsThe results of renal scintigraphy with Tc-99m MAG3 obtained from 160 patients were analyzed retrospectively. Eight renogram parameters were calculated for each patient based on the area under the renogram (area method) and slope of the renogram (slope method) using different periods for analysis (1-2 and 1-2.5 minutes for the area method; 0.5-1.5 and 0.5-2 minutes for the slope method) and different backgrounds for subtraction (perirenal and subrenal backgrounds). The 8 parameters were then correlated with MAG3 clearance measured by the single-sample methods proposed by Russell et al and Bubeck et al to determine the equation for the conversion of renogram parameters to clearance.ResultsAll 8 renogram parameters were highly correlated with clearance measured by the single-sample methods, and the obtained equations enabled the estimation of clearance from image data. Selection between the area and slope methods, between different periods for analysis, or between perirenal and subrenal backgrounds did not cause large differences in the estimation.ConclusionThe camera-based methods determined in the present study allow the estimation of MAG3 clearance with acceptable accuracy.

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