Renal Cystic Disease

Abstract

Renal cystic disease is a heterogeneous entity, including developmental (simple and complex cysts, localized cystic diseases, extraparenchymal sinus cysts, medullary sponge kidney, and multicystic dysplastic kidney), acquired (acquired cystic kidney disease), and heritable (autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease, tuberous sclerosis complex, von Hippel–Lindau disease) disorders. Various imaging modalities are used for the diagnosis and clinical evaluation of renal cystic diseases. While ultrasound is more commonly used as a screening modality, CT and MR imaging are more widely used in clinical settings for characterizing renal cystic lesions, assessing cysts complications, and differentiating benign from malignant cystic lesions. The diagnosis of a specific renal cystic disease can be made by a review of the patient’s clinical history in conjunction with radiographic findings. Key imaging features useful for the diagnosis of renal cystic disease include the location, distribution, size, and composition of renal cysts as well as other coexisting noncystic renal lesions and characteristic extrarenal findings.