Evaluation of Urinary Tract Calculi by Sonological and Plain Abdominal Radiography- An Observational Study

Abstract

BACKGROUND Urolithiasis is very common, affecting 12% of the population at some point of time in their life. The most common type of stone is calcium oxalate (60-80%). X-ray & ultrasound were most commonly used to diagnostic tools to pinpoint the urinary tract calculi & decrease the incidences of false diagnosis. METHODS Plain x-ray and ultrasound evaluation in the diagnosis of urinary tract calculi was conducted between September 2006 to August 2008. This study was conducted at Adichunchanagiri Institute of Medical Sciences, B.G. Nagar, Mandya. 35 patients included in the study were subjected to plain x-ray & ultrasound. RESULTS Total number of patients was 35, out of which 19 were female (54.28%) & 16 patients were male (45.71%) respectively. Age of the patients varied from 13 to 77 yrs. Out of 35 patients, 16 had ureteric calculi (35%), 11 had renal with ureteric calculi (31.4%), 4 had vesical calculus (11.4%) and 4 had calculus in PUJ (11.4%). 74.2% cases were diagnosed as urinary tract calculi by x-ray & 82.8% cases were diagnosed by ultrasound respectively. CONCLUSIONS Ultrasonography has more accuracy than plain x-ray in diagnosing urinary tract calculi. When both investigations were combined, accuracy rate further increased.