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Evaluation Of Suspected Renal Colic Patients With Unenhanced Low-Dose Multi-Detector Computed Tomography


N Twahirwa
J Rees

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the proportion of correctly diagnosed ureteric calculi and alternate diagnoses using unenhanced low dose multidetector CT KUB.
Design: Descriptive – prospective study.
Setting: Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi between November 2006 and October 2007.
Subjects: One hundred and four patients underwent low dose multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) KUB.
Results: Ninety (47 males and 43 females with age range of 17 - 79 years, mean 40 years) were included in the statistical analysis while 14 were excluded. Eighteen out of ninety (20%) were classified as definitely having ureteric calculi on the composite reference. Among the 18, 17 were correctly identified on unenhanced low dose MDCT, giving a proportion of (17/18) 94.4%, Pearson Correlation of 0.898 and Fishers exact test significance < 0.001. 29/90 (32%) had alternative diagnosis and 42/90 (47%) had no abnormality detected on unenhanced low dose MDCT.
Conclusion: This study shows that, unenhanced low dose MDCT KUB can be effectively used for evaluation of suspected renal colic patients as demonstrated by the statistically significant correctly detected ureteric calculi.

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