Abstract

RENGIFO ABBAD, Diego et al. Diagnostic validity of helical CT compared to ultrasonography in renal-ureteral colic. Arch. Esp. Urol. [online]. 2010, vol.63, n.2, pp.139-144. ISSN 0004-0614.

Objectives: Helical CT without contrast is currently being evaluated for the diagnosis of renoureteral colic. Ureteral obstruction and other pathologies with similar symptoms can be rapidly identified. This study intends to evaluate the validity of CTh for these patients and to compare it with the ultrasound technique in order to consider the CTh as an efficient diagnostic alternative for these pathologies. Methods: A diagnostic evaluation study was carried out between January 2004 and December 2006 in patients with persistent renoureteral colic after standard care. They were blindly evaluated by ultrasound and CTh, maintaining the follow up until the "gold standard" confirmation. Qualitative variables were described by frequency and 95%CI and quantitative variables by position and dispersion measures. The c² test was used to compare qualitative variables. Validity indicators and 95% CI were calculated and compared with McNemar test. Results: 124 patients were studied. Lithiasis and the other diagnosis had frequencies of 59.7% and 40.3% respectively. The percentage of lithiasis obtained by ultrasound (92) was 22.8% and by CTh (124) was 59.7%. Validity indicators for CTh were superior to 95%, with 100% sensitivity and positive predictive value. Ultrasound specificity and positive predictive value were 100%, but sensitivity was only 29.6% (p<0.05). Conclusion: CTh can be considered a good alternative diagnostic technique in the renoureteral colic management.

Keywords : Ureteral calculi; Helical TC; Echography; Reproducibility of results.

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