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Objective: To analyze the efficiency of diuretic renography in the management of unilateral ureteropelvic junction obstruction (UPJO) patients, by observing the affected kidney relative renal function (RRF) and drainage in the period of follow-up., Methods: In the study, 76 patients diagnosed as unilateral UPJO were retrospectively collected. Diuretic renography was performed on all the patients initially, and during the period of follow-up. No morphological or functional abnormalities were detected on the contralateral kidney. Changes of affected renal RRF and drainage were observed during the follow-up period. The correlations of initial RRF (RRFinitial) and drainage type with RRF improvement were analyzed., Results: In the operative group (57 cases), the RRFinitial of affected kidney was 40.81%±12.96%, and the RRF in the last follow-up (RRFrecent) was 44.63%±13.21% (P<0.05). Drainage improvements was found in 54.00% of the obstructive patients (27/50), and unchanged in 71.43% of the non-obstructive patients (5/7). In the conservative group (19 cases), the RRFinitial was 46.47%±12.84%, and the RRFrecent was 46.95%±11.86% (P>0.05). One obstructive patient (1/10) was found with improved drainage, and the other 9 obstructive patients (9/10) and all of the non-obstructive patients (9/9) were observed with unchanged drainage. Four patients with deteriorated RRF in the conservative group received surgery. There were no significant differences in the changes of affected renal RRF in different RRFinitial and drainage types in both operative and conservative groups., Conclusion: Diuretic renography could be effectively applied in the follow-up of unilateral UPJO patients. Operation could improve affected kidney's RRF, and better some patients' drainage conditions. However, for those patients with no or minor clinical symptoms, conservative management could be accepted if RRF remains stable during the period of follow up.

Aim: Currently, the widely adopted renal dynamic imaging in clinical practice uses Gates' method to calculate the glomerular filtration rate (GFR), but many researchers have proven that Gates' method may result in bias. Thus, this article explores alternative improved formulae to calculate GFR by renal dynamic imaging., Methods: Three hundred and sixty-seven patients were selected and their GFR values were measured using renal dynamic imaging and the two-plasma method with 99mTc-diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (99mTc-DTPA) as the imaging agent. With the two-plasma GFR as reference value, two equations were obtained from linear and non-linear regression analyses between the renal uptake percentage and two-plasma GFR. The 367 patients were divided into two random groups, with the first group used to derive the regression formulae and the second to verify the formulae. Finally, all patients were studied to derive the formulae to calculate GFR. The comparison of our formulae with the commonly used Gates' formula was conducted by the Bland-Altman method., Results: The linear and non-linear GFR formulae were as follows: GFR (ml/min/1.73 m2)=(631.633 x renal uptake percentage - 2.040) x 1.73/BSA (BSA, body surface area) and GFR (ml/min/1.73 m2)=(-1996.585 x renal uptake percentage2 + 1013.526 x renal uptake percentage - 12.739) x 1.73/BSA, respectively. The biases of the GFR values calculated using the linear and non-linear formulae and Gates' formula relative to the two-plasma GFR were -2.5 +/- 19.1 ml/min/1.73 m2, -2.0 +/- 19.3 ml/min/1.73 m2 and 3.4 +/- 19.4 ml/min/1.73 m2, respectively., Conclusions: The GFR values calculated using our new formulae correlate better with the reference GFR value than does GFR calculated by Gates' formula, and the GFR values measured using the non-linear formula are more accurate than those obtained using the linear formula.