VALUE OF DIAGNOSTIC-IMAGING IN PATIENTS W ITH URINARY-TRACT INFECTIONS

The current state-of-the-art in diagnostic imaging, especially in ultr asound, computed tomography, and MRI raises the question wether there is a more efficient diagnostic workup of inflammatory diseases of the urinary tract. A comparison of findings on renal ultrasound (US) versu s excretory urography (EU) in 59 females with clinically proven (E. co li) chronic non-obstructive pyelonephritis is presented. There was a s ignificant correlation (p = 0,00006) of typical findings between the t wo modalities. Pathological results were obtained in 54,5% (EU) and 48 ,1% (US) respectively. This relatively low rate of morphological chang es might be explained by the short mean duration of the disease proces s of 12,2 +/- 7,6 years in the examined group. Voiding cysturethrograp hy still seems necessary to rule out vesicoureteral reflux in children with UTI. Example images are shown to stress the importance of comput ed tomography in complicated cases.