Difficulty and importance of diagnosing stenosis of renal branch artery in fibromuscular dysplasia: a case report

Abstract

A 16-year-old patient presented with abdominal pain and sustained hypertension. Thorough evaluation including renography with and without captopril and renal vein renin sampling were normal. Duplex ultrasound, however, raised suspicion of a renal artery stenosis. This was confirmed by computed tomography angiography which showed a severe branch artery stenosis with post-stenotic dilatation consistent with focal fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD). As the hypertension was resistant to 3 classes of antihypertensive treatment, percutaneous transluminal renal angioplasty (PTRA) was offered. The procedure had immediate effect on the blood pressure. Without medication the patient remains normotensive 4 years after and the abdominal pain has only sporadically returned. The presented case illustrates the challenging process of diagnosing FMD-related renal branch artery stenosis as well as the potential benefits of PTRA in this patient group.