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 99тТс-ОТРЛ 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 vascu-lature 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.