Evaluation of chronic renal failure by digital gray-scale ultrasound

Forty-two patients presenting with chronic renal failure (serum creatinine 1.5--22.2 mg/dl) were examined with digital gray-scale ultrasound using high-frequency transducers. In 41 patients both kidneys were diffusely hyperechoic. Corticomedullary boundary could be defined in only a few patients. In one patient with focal glomerulopathy and mildly reduced renal function, the kidneys were ultrasonographically normal. The increased echogenicity of kidneys was not specific to any renal parenchymal diseases, and there was no definite correlation between the echogenicity of the kidneys, kidney size, and the degree of decrease of renal function.