Ultrasound detection rate of childhood urolithiasis

A retrospective study of 42 children with 45 proven urinary tract stones who had had intravenous urography (IVU), ultrasound examination and a plain abdominal X-ray (KUB) was undertaken in order to evaluate the prediction rate of each method. Ultrasound was more sensitive than KUB (91% vs 80%) in detecting stones. All renal stones were detected by ultrasound. KUB was superior to ultrasound in detecting ureteral stones (66.6% vs 55.5%). All stones were detected by the combination of ultrasound and KUB. Two renal radiolucent stones were missed by IVU. The results of this study suggest that the combination of ultrasound examination and KUB is more sensitive in detecting stones than IVU and is more convenient and less invasive.