title: Ultrasonography contribution in detection of reno-urinary anomalies: a cohort study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The current study aims to assess the role of ultrasound (US) parameters in explaining the variance of hydronephrosis grades in reno-urinary anomalies, as well as their performance in quantifying the incidence of patients with uropathies.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study 196 patients were prospectively included. All of them had renal/urinary tract anomalies and were recruited from 5992 US examined hospitalized patients. Fifty patients were referred also to renal 99mTc- DMSA or 99mTc-DTPA scintigraphy. The diagnostic performance of renal ultrasound and scintigrafy parameters was assessed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Pelvis antero-posterior diameter (APD) values were strongly correlated with other investigated parameters. They correlated with measurements of US parenchyma values (r=0.59, p=0.001), pelvis area (r=0.76, p=0.001) and with scintigraphy long axis measurements (r=0.89, p=0.001). In multiple regression analysis, the pelvis APD is the only independent predictor of high grades hydronephrosis (p=0.001) and explained 62.4% of the variance of hydronephrosis grades. The cut-off values for detection of significant hydronephrosis (grades 3,4) was 11 mm or more, and for detection of severe, in need of surgery, hydronephrosis was 19 mm or more.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The diagnostic performance of ultrasound was good, similar to those previously published by other authors. US detected pelvis APD is the main predictor for high grades hydronephrosis but other parameters also influence the uropathy grades.
authors.affiliation: Radiology Clinic, Emergency Clinical County Hospital, Clinica Pediatrie III, Str. Campeni, 2-4, 400200 Cluj-Napoca, Romania. dianasorinafeier@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Diana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Feier
authors.forename: Otilia
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Fufezan
authors.forename: Simona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tătar
authors.forename: Gheorghe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cobzac
authors.forename: Roxana Tania
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Popa
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D019540:Area Under Curve; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006869:Hydronephrosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012372:ROC Curve; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D012044:Regression Analysis; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014463:Ultrasonography; D014564:Urogenital Abnormalities / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*