Kidney Stones: Is There a Way to See Them Better?

Renal colic caused by kidney stone or urolithiasis is common diagnosis in Urology departments worldwide. There are projections that during lifetime 13% of men and 7% of women will get a kidney stone. The incidence of stone formation is determined by ethnicity, geographical and climatic features as well as genetic factors and diet. The prevalence of kidney stones is between 1% and 20%. Approximately, every fifth visit to emergency Urology department in Split, Croatia is a result of acute flank pain. To support the clinical diagnosis appropriate imaging is performed, ultrasound with kidney-ureter-bladder X-ray and/or CT scan. X-ray imaging is most used technique because of its' availability and low ionizing radiation exposure. The problem encountered is lack of sensitivity and specificity what leads to low dose CT scans to confirm the diagnosis. It would be of great help for clinicians to compare images of kidney-ureter-bladder X-ray images to more specific and sensitive CT scans to improve the diagnosis based on X-ray only.