Abstract

Calcification of the renal artery

posted by Martin Heuschmid, M.D. | Dec 16, 2007

Case history

62-year-old female presenting with hypertension. She had undergone left nephrectomy 12 years prior. Since she is severely claustrophobic, an MRI can not be performed.

Questions

Anatomical abnormalities?
Calcified or soft plaque lesions?
Stenosis of the right renal artery?

Diagnosis / Differential diagnosis

Arteriosclerosis of the right renal artery
Stenosis of the renal artery
Soft or hard plaque
Fibromuscular dysplasia
Other pathologies

Findings

Abnormal anatomic findings were excluded. Fused dual energy images show a mixed plaque at the ostium of the right renal artery as well as several calcified plaques at the aortic wall. No severe vascular stenosis could be found.

Comments

Detection of calcified plaques with dual energy CTA is feasible also in abdominal scans. Even small calcified plaques are detected and colorcoded. With the bone removal tools, plaques can be removed from the images, making an unimpaired view onto the vessel lumen possible.

[1] Axial postprocessed image from a dual energy abdominal scan. Note a calcified plaque at the outlet of the right renal artery (arrow).	[2] Coronar reformatted image of the same plaque (arrow).
[3] Sagital image of the same plaque (arrow).	[4] Image after the application of dual energy bone removal. Bones and plaques have been cancelled from the images.