Gray scale ultrasonography in medullary cystic disease of the kidney and congenital hepatic fibrosis with tubular ectasia: new observations.

The gray scale ultrasound findings of three patients with medullary cystic disease of the kidney and two patients with congenital hepatic fibrosis with tubular ectasia are reported. Medullary cystic disease of the kidney typically presents early in adulthood with renal failure and salt-losing nephropathy. The spectrum of gray scale ultrasound findings in this entity includes irregular widened central echoes when small cysts are present and well defined cystic structures when larger medullary cysts are the predominant lesion. The ultrasound findings in congenital hepatic fibrosis with tubular ectasia seem to be a characteristic combination of nephromegaly, a distorted renal echo pattern, and high level echoes in the liver. Ultrasound is a useful noninvasive method which is complementary to other methods in the identification and differential diagnosis of bilateral renal cystic disease.