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Updated: Sep 21, 2026

Ultrasonography of the Adult Male Urinary Tract for Urinary Functional Testing
Published on: August 14, 2019
Magnetic resonance urography by virtual reality modelling
Navid Beigi1, Thomas Sangild, Søren Vorre Terkildsen
1MR Research Centre, Skejby University Hospital, Denmark.
Purpose:
The purpose of this study was to create a 3D visualization of the urinary tract by a novel virtual reality approach, and to evaluate the usefulness of this method for papillary classification as compared with 2D urogram obtained by maximum intensity projection (MIP).
Materials And Methods:
In one healthy pig, magnetic resonance urography was performed using a T1-weighted 3D gradient echo pulse sequence. Post-processing was performed by means of an MIP algorithm and by using 3D virtual reality modelling, followed by manual classification of papillae as being either simple or compound.
Results:
The 2D MIP urogram demonstrated 6 simple and 6 compound papillae, whereas the 3D urogram demonstrated 5 simple and 7 compound papillae. In both urograms, some papillae were unsuccessfully classified.
Conclusion:
The possibility of using virtual reality devices allowed 3D rotation and offered additional diagnostic information. However, further studies should reveal its feasibility in diseased kidneys.
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