[A comparison of sonography and intravenous pyelography in diseases of the kidneys and urinary organs].

Ultrasonography and intravenous pyelography (IVP) were compared for their diagnostic value in 65 patients (29 women, 36 men; mean age 57 [19-85] years) thought to have disease of the kidneys or urinary tract (microhaematuria in 16, macrohaematuria in 5, urinary tract infection in 11, suspicion of renovascular hypertension in 6, suspected tumour in 5, suspected nephrolithiasis in 15, and flank pain of uncertain cause in 7). Ultrasound established an abnormal condition in 29, in five of which IVP gave false positive results, false-negative results in three. The false-negative results were an indirect sign of renal artery stenosis in one patient and in one patient each of duplex ureter and cystic ureteritis. Mild hydronephrosis (n = 3), stone in a kidney or the renal calyx system (n = 2) and tumour of the right kidney (n = 1), diagnosed by ultrasound, were not seen by IVP. Concordant results were thus obtained in 70% of cases. Ultrasound examination of the urinary tract gives such reliable results that in many cases an additional IVP is unnecessary.