CT findings of Acute Renal Cortical Necrosis

Acute renal cortical necrosis (ARCN) is a rare cause of acute renal failure characterized by necrosis of the renal cortex with sparing of the renal medulla. Owing to poor clinical condition during the early period of ARCN in most cases, it does not allow renal biopsy which is a gold standard for diagnosis. Therefore, noninvasive diagnostic modalities have been tried and, among them, contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) is found to provide characteristic findings. We present a 31-year-old female of meningococcemia with septic shock, who developed oligouria and was diagnosed as ARCN by the specific CT findings without renal biopsy.