Gallbladder Visualization Following the Use of 70 Per Cent Sodium Acetrizoate (Urokon Sodium) for Intravenous Pyelography

Abstract

In the course of a kidney examination of a 6-year-old girl, a retrograde pyelography study was done two hours after the intravenous injection of 12.5 c.c. of Urokon Sodium (70 per cent). The two-hour time interval was purely incidental. The scout film was negative, but the first pyelogram of the series showed a well defined gallbladder shadow, partially superimposed upon the shadow of the opacified right kidney. Since we had not previously encountered this phenomenon, and were not familiar with the work of Porporis (1) or Orloff (2), we set up a preliminary survey to determine, if possible, the frequency with which such findings might occur. The next 24 consecutive patients receiving intravenous Urokon Sodium (70 per cent) for kidney studies were returned for gallbladder films two hours after receiving the contrast medium. Their ages varied from three to seventy-four years. No attempt at selection of cases was made. Gallbladder shadows were classified on the basis of density as follows: * barely visible, ** easily visible, *** clearly visible. In 12 of the 25 patients (including the original patient) shadows were observed that could be classified in one. of these three groups. Five were in the clearly visible group. No attempt was made to carry out any specific study of the patients. The sole data obtained in this series thus far are shown in the accompanying tabulation. Serial studies were not done. These might show a higher percentage of gallbladder visualization. Our sole purpose was to determine the frequency with which this phenomenon might be encountered two hours after intravenous administration of Urokon Sodium 70 per cent for excretory urography. Summary Twenty-five consecutive patients undergoing excretory urographic studies were examined radiographically two hours after having received standard doses of Urokon Sodium 70 per cent. Twelve of the twenty-five showed some degree of opacification of the gallbladder. In 5 of the 12, the gallbladder shadow was graded as clearly visible.