Ultrasound: Overview

Abstract

The principal recent advances in the field of renal sonography relate to the detailed elucidation of sonographic renal anatomy and a description of the findings in medical renal disease. Thanks to the painstaking work of Cook et al. [1], who sectioned kidneys in vitro along the axis of a previous ultrasonic scan, it is known that one can identify the renal pyramids and arcuate vessels on a sonogram (Fig. 1). The pyramids appear as a relatively echopenic area compared to the more echogenic cortex. The arcuate vessels are echogenic structures at the apex of the pyramidal zone of sonolucency. In the normal patient the renal parenchyma is less echogenic than the liver, but in medical renal disease the kidney often becomes more echogenic (Fig. 2). Rosenfield et al. [2] have categorized medical renal disease in terms of parenchymal echogenicity. In the earlier stages the renal parenchyma becomes as echogenic as liver parenchyma and at a later, more severe, stage it is more echogenic than the liver and as echogenic as the sinus echoes. Although these changes are common, they do not appear specific, and many renal diseases adopt the same appearance.KeywordsSpina BifidaGallbladder WallPlacenta PreviaFetal MovementRenal Vein ThrombosisThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.