Ureteric pain in patients with chronic renal failure on hemodialysis. Diagnostic approach with ultrasonography and computer tomography.

Chronically hemodialyzed patients who experienced ureteric pain were studied using ultrasonography and computer tomography. 6 of 45 dialysis patients complained of flank, lumbar or lower abdominal pain and 4 of these sonography or computer tomography. Ultrasonography was diagnostically superior to computer tomography. Renal stones were observed in 23 out of 45 cases by computer tomography. Ultrasonographic images of small renal stones were sometimes equivocal as compared with computer tomography, but low density stones, not shown by computer tomography, were shown by ultrasonography in a few cases. Therefore, both methods, in combination, are of great value in the diagnosis of asymptomatic renal stones as well as ureteral obstruction in the contracted kidney.