Transcripts
DR. BRANDT:
This is a normal renal ultrasound, here is the kidney that we see on ultrasound, and above it is the liver. In this case the right kidney is normal; these little black cystic-like structures are the collecting tubules where the urine is collecting.
The renal ultrasound is very good at telling us about kidney size. The kidneys should be certain sizes at certain ages if they're healthy. We refer to the look of the ultrasound as "echogenicity," which is a non-specific term, but basically tells us about the density of the kidney. A kidney should have a certain density in the renal ultrasound if it's healthy. We can also see stones in the kidney. We may see scars with an ultrasound and obstruction to blood flow.
In a child with HUS, if we do a renal ultrasound (and often we don't because we don't need it to make the diagnosis for HUS) we tend to see increased echogenicity and sometimes enlarged kidneys. And that's because the kidneys are very swollen and inflamed.
The renal ultrasound provides no functional information whatsoever. The kidney can be very small or very echogenic and can be working quite well. On the other hand, kidneys can look fairly bad and still be making a lot of urine.
