Pharmacological interventional agents in combination with renal imaging with radiopharmaceuticals are employed to assess the functional integrity of the kidney. Captopril is such an agent that act as a specific competitive inhibitor of angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACEI), the enzyme responsible for the conversion of angiotensin I to angiotensin II. Captopril assisted renal scintigraphy is one of the reliable method in predicting angiographically significant renal artery stenosis in patients suspected of having renovascular hypertension.
The present article discuss the method and scope of this non-invasive tool for renal imaging in adjunction with 99m-Tc-DTPA based baseline studies. Mechanism of Action In renal artery stenosis (RAS), angiotensin II produces constriction of the efferent arterioles of the glomerulus resulting in elevation of the filtration pressure which maintains…
