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Test Query?

11/22/2005 04:55PM

Question:

Is there a test to check kidney dysfunction called a “glophyll”? I am not sure of the spelling.

Answer:

Glofil is the trade name for a substance called 125-I sodium iothalamate.  The name was derived from “glomerular filtration,” which is a function of the kidneys.  The kidneys’ major job is to remove toxic waste products from the body.  Blood passes through the kidneys and is continuously cleaned and purified.  Each kidney contains approximately one million tiny filters called glomeruli.  These microscopic filters work by sieving blood, retaining things that the body needs (such as blood cells and protein molecules), and discarding substances that are not needed, such as waste products that accumulate after processing of food.  The waste products that are filtered out ultimately make up a large portion of the urine that is excreted from the body.  

One way of measuring how well the kidneys work is to give a person a substance that gets filtered out by the glomeruli and excreted in the urine.  Glofil is one such substance.  It is administered intravenously, and its disappearance from the bloodstream is carefully measured and quantified.  Because Glofil contains a tiny amount of radioactivity, the amount of it remaining in the blood can easily be determined by measuring the radioactivity in the body repeatedly over a period of time (usually several hours).  The rate at which Glofil disappears allows us to calculate the rate at which glomeruli are filtering it out of the bloodstream, and thus to determine how well the kidneys are working.  The amount of radioactivity in a typical dose of Glofil is less than that in a single chest x-ray. 

Here is some additional information about the technical aspects of a Glofil test.

For more information:

Go to the Kidney Diseases health topic.