Case of renal artery stenosis in an elderly patient after nephrectomy diagnosed by ultrasound sonography, showing improvement of blood pressure and renal dysfunction after renal artery stenting

Arteriosclerotic renal artery stenosis is one of the increasingly common diseases that affects many aged patients. There are various non-invasive methods to diagnose renal artery stenosis, such as contrast enhanced CT or MRI. However, these methods are not appropriate for patients with renal dysfunction. Ultrasound sonography is becoming one of the promising methods to diagnose artery stenosis because of photographic improvements. In this case, a 72-year-old woman was hospitalized 7 months after nephrectomy because of severe hypertension, heart failure and kidney dysfunction. The heart failure was quite uncontrollable in spite of massive administration of diuretics, and finally, hemodialysis was started to control her volume status. In consideration of her past history and abdominal bruit, we evaluated the renal artery stenosis by ultrasound sonography and confirmed the diagnosis by renal angiography. To improve hypertension control, we performed renal artery stenting, which resulted in an impressive improvement of her blood pressure and renal function. We recognized the importance of careful causal evaluation of renal dysfunction, even though it is difficult to apply invasive therapy to patients after nephrectomy.