Image Checking

With the development of medical imageology, the diagnosis of kidney diasease is becoming more precisely and timely.

X-ray
X-ray has been applied in this area for a long time and is still a general process. KUB X-ray is a required step for the disease diagnosis. Stone may be neglected and kidney calices stone may be treated as kidney tuberculosis cavity if the urinary tract radiography comes directly without the KUB X-ray.

Intravenous pyelography or IVP is the second X-ray method, which enables the visualization of the kidney calices, kidney pelvis, ureter and bladder’s lumen and it can provide a brief reflection of the kidneys’ excretion, so it is the most common and effective method.

Retrograde urography is the third X-ray method, which needs the contrast medium to be released inside the bladder by the catheter penetrated through the ureter. The advantages of this method are that the radiography is very clear and it won’t be affected by the kidney function. The disadvantages are that the patients have to suffer the pain and it may cause retrograde infection, in addition, it does not fit those people whose ureter is not big enough.

Puncturing radiography is the fourth X-ray method. It covers the shortage that IVP fails to work or it shows hydronephrosis of the ultrasound or ureter obstruction. It is widely used in the inspection of the ureteral fistula or the condition after the ureter diversion surgery.

Renal angiography is the fifth method. It realizes by abdominal aortagraphy and selective renal arteriography. Due to the improvement of the contrast medium, higher concentration, lower toxicity and the emerging of the new kind of contrast medium, the mentioned method becomes more and more safe. This inspection must be done after the kidney transplantation.

Ultrasound
Ultrasound has been widely applied in all kinds of kidney disease diagnosis. It is the first option of the image checking since it is faster, easier, no radiation and suitable for any one. The shortage of ultrasound is that the image scope is not big enough and the integrity is not as good as CT and MRI, so it is better combining other imaging methods if necessary.

CT
CT or computed tomography, specializes in soft tissue distinguish ability. With the help of high sensitive detector, the fracture surface of the human tissue will form the image in the computer, which can show the relationship between the kidneys and the around organs.

MRI
MRI or magnetic resonance imaging is a kind of technology without radiation. It provides much greater contrast between the different soft tissues of the body than CT. Magnetic resonance urography assists a lot in the kidney disease diagnosis by rebuilding the three dimensional image.

Any kind of imaging technology has its own forming principle, and emphasizes different aspects of the contrast. The combination of each method can provide a powerful support for the disease diagnosis.

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