Quantification of renal uptake of technetium-99m-DTPA using planar scintigraphy: a technique that considers organ volume.

We developed a method to estimate the radioactivity of 99mTc-DTPA within the kidney by planar scintigraphy. Phantom experiments and renal studies were used to compare our method with that of the Gates' method. Our method corrects for scatter and attenuation using the volume depth-independent buildup factor technique, after which background correction is performed with consideration for target organ volume. When the renal phantom-to-background activity concentration ratio (S) was changed from 5 to 80 in a water-filled container and the renal phantom depth was varied from 1 to 11 cm for each value of S, the renal phantom count rate calculated by our method was accurate under all conditions investigated. In contrast, the Gates' method was significantly affected by phantom depth and S values. In 40 patients, renal uptake in the image obtained 2-3 min after injection of 99mTc-DTPA was estimated by our method and the Gates' method, and the correlation between uptake and creatinine clearance was determined. When a ring background region of interest (ROI) around the kidney was employed, a good correlation was obtained by our method (r = 0.947) in comparison with the Gates method (r = 0.887). With both methods, a semilunar background ROI produced poor results than the ring background ROI. In conclusion, renal radioactivity levels that correlate well with creatinine clearance can be obtained by our method, which allows estimation of individual glomerular filtration rates.