Maturation of malfunctioning kidneys.

Because loss of functional renal mass is compensated by hyperfiltration of remaining tissue, one could hypothesize that a damaged kidney might not have the same rate of maturation as the contralateral one. To verify this, maturation was evaluated in children with asymmetrical renal function during early life. Twenty-five children were selected having had 2 (99m)Tc-MAG3 renograms combined with (51)Cr-EDTA clearance measurement, enabling estimation of glomerular filtration rate (GFR), split renal function (SRF), and single kidney GFR (SKGFR).