(Ultrasound Review) Turkish radiologists from Ege University School of Medicine studied many children to investigate how often urachal remnants (UR) were demonstrated on high frequency ultrasound imaging. Their results were published in the May issue of the Journal of Clinical Ultrasound.
Ultrasound was used to image the distended bladder -- the region anterior to the upper portion of the bladder -- using a high-frequency linear or curved-array transducer. Of the 182 children examined, ultrasound demonstrated URs in 99% of them. None of the children included in the research project had urachus-related symptoms.
"Most of the URs were ovoid, and most demonstrated a moderate protrusion into the bladder cavity," the authors stated.
The URs with an echogenic area centrally (7%) were significantly larger than the homogeneous URs without an echogenic center. Most of the URs displayed an oval shape (87%) and some were round (6%), with the rounded lesions predominantly found in the younger children. The degree of protrusion into the urinary bladder was determined and results showed that 26% showed some protrusion.
While some of the children studied presented urinary tract symptoms, no relationship was shown between UR demonstration and urinary tract pathology. Color Doppler imaging was added for the latter third of the study and demonstrated central vessels in the larger URs.
The authors hypothesized that almost all children retain URs and concluded that a UR should be considered a normal finding if the patient is asymptomatic and the UR’s length is not significantly greater than 22.5 mm, the upper limit for normal (95th percentile) calculated in this series.
"Urachal remnants in asymptomatic children: gray-scale and color Doppler sonographic findings"Süha Süreyya Özbek et al
Dept of Diagnostic Radiology, Ege University School of Medicine, Bornova, TR-35100 Izmir, Turkey
Journal of Clinical Ultrasound 2001 (May); 29:218–222
By Ultrasound Review
July 6, 2001
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