From the Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar St, New Haven, CT 06510.
Radiology. 2014 Nov;273(2 Suppl):S126-41. doi: 10.1148/radiol.14140733.
A matter of months after Roentgen's landmark discovery in 1895, Roentgen's rays were focused on diseases and disorders of the urinary tract, specifically the kidney. At the dawn of the 20th century, urologists in the United States and around the world quickly recognized that by using a variety of metal stylets and radiopaque contrast agents, such as silver salts, the upper urinary tract, namely the ureter, pelvis, and calyces, could be depicted with radiography. Renal cysts and tumors were diagnosed on the basis of deformities in the kidney. Retrograde pyelography dominated the imaging evaluation of the kidney until the discovery of a safe intravenous method for urinary tract imaging (ie, intravenous pyelography). Pioneers and pathfinders in the field of contrast media development and radiologic procedures helped give radiologists the lead role in the work-up of renal masses, an area where urologists once held forth. The subspecialty of uroradiology was born in the middle of the 20th century. Intravenous urography, nephrotomography, and diagnostic angiography with pharmacologic manipulation followed by cyst or mass puncture and biopsy yielded unrivaled specificity for the diagnosis and staging of benign and malignant renal masses. The advent of cross-sectional and multiplanar imaging and the profound effects they had and continue to have on the discovery and characterization of renal masses has been detailed in the pages of Radiology since the 1920s. Ultrasonography, nuclear imaging, computed tomographic scanning, magnetic resonance imaging, and positron emission tomography each have made a claim to a part of the imaging algorithm of modern uroradiologic practice.
伦琴射线在 1895 年的里程碑式发现后的数月内，就被用于聚焦研究泌尿系统疾病，尤其是肾脏疾病。在 20 世纪初，美国和世界各地的泌尿科医生很快认识到，通过使用各种金属探子和不透射线的对比剂，如银盐，可以对包括输尿管、肾盂和肾盏在内的上尿路进行射线照相。基于肾脏的变形，可以诊断出肾囊肿和肿瘤。逆行肾盂造影在肾脏的影像学评估中占据主导地位，直到发现安全的静脉尿路成像方法（即静脉肾盂造影）。对比剂开发和放射学程序领域的先驱者和开拓者帮助放射科医生在肾脏肿块的检查中发挥主导作用，而泌尿科医生曾在这一领域占据主导地位。尿路放射学这一分支学科在 20 世纪中叶诞生。静脉尿路造影、肾断层摄影术和诊断性血管造影术，以及随后的药物操作、囊肿或肿块穿刺活检，为良性和恶性肾脏肿块的诊断和分期提供了无与伦比的特异性。自 20 世纪 20 年代以来，放射学杂志上详细介绍了横断面和多平面成像的出现及其对肾脏肿块的发现和特征描述所产生的深远影响。超声检查、核成像、计算机断层扫描、磁共振成像和正电子发射断层扫描都声称对现代尿路放射学实践的影像学算法的一部分有所贡献。
