Phantom kidney at angionephroscintigraphy

Based on the analysis of the data available in the literature and own clinical observations, the authors consider the diagnostic value of the little known scintigraphic phantom kidney phenomenon, a vascular pool that is detected at the angiographic stage of 99mTc-DTPA dynamic renal scintigraphy and that mimics a removed or absent kidney. The paper describes two cases of the phantom kidney. In one case, the phantom kidney detected on the side of nephrectomy manifested a kidney cancer recurrence in the bed of the removed organ; in the other, the kidney-like vascular pool in the patient with left-sided pelvic dystopic kidney was due to the recording of the intestinal vasculature at the site of the expected kidney location. Adherence to a number of methodical conditions for conducting a study, as well as combined single-photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography examination will be able to avoid interpretation errors and to ensure an adequate further diagnostic algorithm.