The radiological spectrum of acute pyelonephritis in adults and adolescents

Excretory urograms of 40 patients with a clinical and laboratory diagnosis of acute pyelonephritis were reviewed. Eleven (28%) had abnormal urograms attributable to the acute disease process. Of the 11 abnormal patients, 7 had obvious urographic abnormalities, while in 4 the findings were few and subtle. The most common findings were renal enlargement, decreased density of contrast material, delayed calyceal appearance time, and dilatation of the collecting system; of these, the last two most frequently correlated with the clinically abnormal side.