Dear AuntMinnie Member,
A brace of studies presented at this week's American Academy of Pediatrics meeting in San Francisco showed ultrasound's continuing value in pediatric renal imaging, according to an article by staff writer Shalmali Pal in our Ultrasound Digital Community.
In the first study, California researchers found that ultrasound was a good tool for predicting which infants presenting with hydronephrosis would later go on to experience impaired renal function. The researchers found that infants who had problems later on had undergone exams showing much higher echogenicity than those who didn't.
Ultrasound also turned out to be a much better marker of future renal problems than another possible predictive measure, parenchymal thinning. Clinicians could use renal ultrasound echogenicity to guide further radiological testing, and counsel patients and their families, according to the researchers.
In the second study, a group from New York state found that renal ultrasound is still valuable in assessing febrile urinary tract infections in neonates and infants. Ultrasound was able to identify a number of abnormal findings in patients who had normal voiding cystourethrograms (VCUGs), with surgical intervention required in two cases. The group's findings validate current AAP guidelines, which call for both VCUG and renal ultrasound after febrile UTI.
Get the rest of the story in our Ultrasound Digital Community, at ultrasound.auntminnie.com.
