Abstract
Radiology has a primary role in the work-up of renal colic, both to confirm urolithiasis and to help determine management. The traditional imaging has been conventional radiography and intravenous urogram with multidetector non-contrast-enhanced helical computed tomography (NCECT) now the modality of choice. Nuclear medicine studies for renal colic are done now infrequently at most institutions. Ultrasound (US) is often done, especially in the emergency department, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is promising. Radiation dose reduction is now on everyone’s minds: Lower-dose CT techniques are being tested and used, and US and MR are considered as first modalities of choice in pregnant women and children.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Tamm EP, Silverman PM, Shuman WP (2003) Evaluation of the patient with flank pain and possible ureteral calculus. Radiology 228(2):319–329
Jindal G, Ramchandani P (2007) Acute Flank pain secondary to urolithiasis: radiologic evaluation and alternate diagnoses. Radiol Clin North Am 45(3):395–410
Masarani M, Dinneen M (2007) Ureteric colic: new trends in diagnosis and treatment. J Postgrad Med 83:469–472
Lee JL, Kim SH, Cho JY, Han D (2001) Color and power Doppler twinkling artifacts from urinary stones: clinical observations and phantom studies. AJR 176:1441–1445
Oktar SO, Yücel C, Özdemir H, Karaosmanoglu D (2004) Doppler sonography of renal obstruction: value of venous impedance index measurements. J Ultrasound Med 23:929–936
Smith RC et al (1995) Acute flank pain: comparison of non-contrast CT and IVU. Radiology 194:789–794
Schwartz B, Schenkman N, Armenakas N, Stoller M (1999) Imaging characteristics of indinavir calculi. J Urol 161:1085–1087
Rucker CM, Menias CO, Bhalla S (2004) Mimics of renal colic: alternative diagnoses at unenhanced helical CT. Radiographics 24:S11–S33
Sudah M et al (2002) Patients with acute flank pain: comparison of MR urography with unenhanced helical CT1. Radiology 223:98
Lee CI, Haims AH, Monico EP, Brink JA, Forman HP (2004) Diagnostic CT scans: assessment of patient, physician, and radiologist awareness of radiation dose and possible risks. Radiology 231:393–398
Heneghan JP, McGuire KA, Leder RA, Delong DM, Yoshizumi T, Nelson RC (2003) Helical CT for nephrolithiasis and ureterolithiasis: comparison of conventional and reduced radiation-dose techniques. Radiology 229:575–580
Tack D, Sourtzis S, Delpierre I, de Maertelaer V, Gevenois PA (2003) Low-dose unenhanced multidetector CT of patients with suspected renal colic. AJR 180:305–311
Katz SI, Saluja S, Brink JA, Forman HP (2006) Radiation dose associated with unenhanced CT for suspected renal colic: impact of repetitive studies. AJR 186:1120–1124
Poletti PA, Platon A, Rutschmann OT, Schmidlin FR, Iselin CE, Becker CD (2007) Low-dose versus standard-dose CT protocol in patients with clinically suspected renal colic. AJR 188(4):927–933
Arnis S (2007) American college of radiology white paper on radiation dose in medicine. J Am Coll Radiol 4:272–284
Brenner DJ, Hall EJ (2007) Computed tomography—an increasing source of radiation exposure. N Engl J Med 357(22):2277–2284 November 29, 2007
Patel SJ, Reede DL, Katz DS, Subramaniam R, Amorosa JK (2007) Imaging the pregnant patient for nonobstetric conditions: algorithms and radiation dose considerations. Radiographics 27:1705–1722
McCollough CH et al (2007) Radiation exposure and pregnancy: when should we be concerned? Radiographics 27:909–917
Boswell W, Hossein J, Palmer S (2007) Diagnostic kidney imaging. Brenner & Rector’s The Kidney 8th edition, Chapter 27, Copyright Elsevier, pp 839
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Reddy, S. State of the art trends in imaging renal of colic. Emerg Radiol 15, 217–225 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10140-008-0705-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10140-008-0705-6