Static Renal Scintigraphy in Diagnosis of Pediatric Renal Pyelonephritis

Abstract

Imaging of children who had symptoms and signs of pyelonephritis is aimed to diagnosis of renal injury and identification of risk factors for pyelonephritis that might be uncovered during imaging includes vesico-ureteric reflux (VUR). The purpose of this study was to determine the role of static renal scintigraphy in diagnosis of pediatric renal pyelonephritis and the value of single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) in diagnosis. This study was carried out on 50 patients in Radiology Department at Mansoura Urology and Nephrology center and Radiology department at Tanta university hospitals. High grade vesicoureteric reflux "VUR" (grade IV & V) was detected in 70% of the cases. 42.8% of the cases had vesicoureteric reflux in both kidneys, 42.8% of the cases had VUR only on the left side and 14.2% of the cases had VUR on the right side. A statistical significance was found between grades of pyelonephritis and grades of vescio-ureteric reflux, so there was a strong association between high grade VUR and renal pyelonephritis. It was found that no significant difference was found as regard to the number of abnormal segments detected by static renal scintigraphy and SPECT imaging. Static renal scintigraphy is considered the gold standard for diagnosis of children with pyelonephritis and detection the risk of renal scarring due to recurrent infection. SPECT offers no statistically significant diagnostic advantage over static images for detection of cortical defects.