Abstract
Renal imaging plays a fundamental role in the diagnoses and evaluation of patients with renal pathology. In urology, renal imaging is most commonly used in the evaluation of hematuria, trauma, and abdominal pain and the workup of genitourinary malignancy. Renal imaging is also utilized as follow-up studies for nephrolithiasis and surveillance of malignancy. The different imaging modalities utilized in disease diagnosis, response criteria status, staging, recurrence, restaging, or functional status include computerized tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), diagnostic ultrasound (US), bone scan, nuclear medicine, and plain film X-ray. Positron emission tomography (PET) scanning with labeled antibody for imaging of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is not currently a standard or recommended diagnostic measure and is still under evaluation. Applying the proper radiologic study is pertinent in each clinical situation and maximizes diagnostic accuracy while limiting radiation. Due to their superior diagnostic accuracy, CT and MRI are both used for detection and characterization of neoplasms suspicious for RCC. Kidney imaging also has the ability to allow for a better surgical planning prior to either nephron-sparing surgery or radical nephrectomy for renal tumors. This chapter will focus on the different imaging modalities available to diagnose and differentiate renal pathology with an emphasis on emerging techniques and modalities for the diagnosis and characterization of RCC and the role imaging plays as a biomarker of RCC subtypes.
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Daneshvar, M., Bratslavsky, G. (2021). Kidney Imaging. In: Rastinehad, A.R., Siegel, D.N., Wood, B.J., McClure, T. (eds) Interventional Urology . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73565-4_21
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