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Wk 2, Case 4 - Review

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This is Pediatrics week 2 case number four

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and the diagnosis were considering is duplex.

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Kidney with ectopic your

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read-a-roll insertion.

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The image you see in front of you is the initial image of a

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renal and bladder ultrasound beginning with an image

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of the bladder and you can see not only is there

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anechoic urine within this urinary bladder but a

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structure here that is definitely not urine within the

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urinary bladder. Could it be a hematoma? Could it

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be a stone? It's not shadowing. Could it

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be something else entirely? Let's progress through the

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Study and try to understand what's going on. Here's some

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more bladder images with this structure again. Here we

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go in lateral or longitudinal position.

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So Superior is here

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and inferior down here.

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We're looking again at the bladder. We're not really seeing any

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other abnormalities in it, but we

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are seeing this structure in on higher resolution view.

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We're seeing not only is it echogenic but

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it's centrally anechoic. It almost looks like

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a cyst within the bladder the

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cystic space assist within a cyst. What

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could this be? Let's keep on looking through at our renal images.

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Here's an longitudinal image

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of the kidney. You can see some medullary pyramids here

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and here that are slightly more hypochoic than

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this more echogenic cortex of

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the kidney at the lower pole the architecture

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of the kidney. It's fairly reassuring at

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the upper pole we have this

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Vague hypoechoic area

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what's going on there? Let's keep looking you can see we've measured

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the upper and lower poles of the kidney to get a longitudinal length

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of the kidney and here on the Doppler signal.

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There's an interesting oblique separation between

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the blood flow to these

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areas of the lower pole of the kidney and the

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blood flow to this upper area of the kidney. So this

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is almost a separation between the two parts of the kidney.

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These are trans views. I'm going to keep scrolling through. We're not

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seeing a lot of hydronephrosis here on the

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left. Kidney. We're seeing a very similar oblique

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echogenic line separating the lower Pole

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from the upper pole except in this case. The upper

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pole is very distorted. The

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architecture is almost gone and what looks like

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a cyst remains and as we scroll through that

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left kidney we can see just a further evidence of

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blood flow to a relatively normal lower

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pole and a very abnormal upper pole. And anytime

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you see dramatic differences in what's going

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on with the upper pole versus the lower pole of the kidney. You

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should consider a duplex collecting system, which is in fact

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what's going on here?

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Probably bilateral duplex kidneys, but the left side

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has some problems much more so than the

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right side.

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And it turns out that when there's a duplex collecting

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system. There is a concern not just

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for abnormal separation of

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the drainage of the kidney usually duplication

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of the ureters all the way down to the bladder, but that

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upper pull ureter inserts ectopically.

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So the normal insertion of

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the ureters the ortho topic Ortho is

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Latin for straight the orthotopic insertion.

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Is where we expect it to be the ectopic insertion

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tends to be medial and inferior and

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is frequently Complicated by

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a your reader seal right at the insertion on

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the bladder which can look like a cyst within the bladder recall at

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the very beginning of our study. That's exactly what we

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were looking at. So now we're going to switch over and we're

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going to look at a voiding system urethrogram a fluoroscopic Imaging

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study of the urinary tract

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to try to identify what's going on with these duplex

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ureters. Is there obstruction. Why does

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the upper pull of the kidney look cystic on that

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ultrasound exam. So here we are with our florescopic Imaging

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we're going to infuse contrast into the

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bladder and then we're going to watch as the pressure

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builds within the bladder to see what happens here. We've

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got a nicely full bladder. Here's our fully catheter at the

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midline. We see some Loops of bowel up here. No problem there.

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We want to know what's going on with the ureters and

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pretty quickly. We're starting to see reflux on

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both.

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the right and the left

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Both of these have somewhat of a

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drooping appearance. And this is the so-called

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drooping Lily sign of duplicated collecting

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systems where the lower ureter the normally

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inserted ureter refluxes and

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the ectopic ureter that goes up to that

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upper pole. Remember how cystic it looked on the ultrasound that's obstructed.

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That's what caused that your reader a

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seal in the bladder and as we follow through and

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look at these images of the refluxing contrast, we

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can see one ureter and now we can actually see a

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little bit into the second ureter as well. So both of those

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ureters on the left are seen one of them is quite tortuous. That's

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the lower pole there quite a bit of reflux. And

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then we see this big cystic space. That's what's left

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of the upper Pole.

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And that is the obstructed and dysplastic left

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upper kidney which ends

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in an ectopic your reader a seal

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on the bladder. So this is duplex collecting system.

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Remember the upper pole obstructs the lower

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Pole refluxes.

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And the upper pole is the one that's more likely to become dysplastic because

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of that obstruction because of the your reader

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is sealed that's frequently associated with it. I'm just going to

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scroll through to the end of the study here as we get down to

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the final images. We can see contrast still refluxing

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into that lower pole and upper pole on

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the left and we can see the insertion of

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one of the ureters.

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And this vague structure within the

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bladder a filling defect you might say that's the ureterocio from

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the ectopic ureter.

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That's the end of the case.

Report

EXAM: Renal Ultrasound (US)

INDICATION: 8-year-old girl with urinary tract infections.

TECHNIQUE: Multiple grayscale and color Doppler sonographic images were obtained of the kidneys and bladder.

FINDINGS:

On the left kidney, there is a duplication of the renal collecting system, with a band of echogenic parenchyma separating the superior from the inferior medullary spaces. There is prominent (Grade III) hydronephrosis of the upper moiety, and minimal (grade I) hydronephrosis of the lower moiety.

There is normal appearance of the right kidney and bladder.

IMPRESSIONS:

Duplicated left renal collecting system, with grade III hydronephrosis of the upper moiety and grade I of the lower moiety.

EXAM: Fluoroscopic voiding cystourethrogram (VCUG)

INDICATION: 8-year-old girl with urinary tract infections.

TECHNIQUE: Multiple fluoroscopic images were obtained during the passive retrograde infusion of contrast into the bladder until full, and during voiding.

FINDINGS:

Retrograde filling of the bladder reveal vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) into duplicated ureters. Reflux into the lower moiety reveals mild VUR without significant dilatation of the renal pelvis. Reflux into the ectopic ureter of the upper moiety reveals severe VUR with an enlarged and featureless renal pelvis. There is a ureterocele visualized at the ureterovesicle junction (UVJ) of the ectopic ureter.

Mild reflux is noted on the right. The patient voided the bladder with mild post-void residual bladder volume.

IMPRESSIONS:

1. Duplex left collecting system with grade V VUR of the upper moiety and grade I VUR of the lower moiety. There is a ureterocele at the ectopic ureter’s insertion on the bladder.
2. Grade I VUR on the right.

Case Discussion

Faculty

Brandon P Brown, MD, MA, FAAP

Director of Fetal and Perinatal Imaging

Indiana University School of Medicine

Tags

Ultrasound

Pediatrics

Nuclear Medicine

Kidneys

Genitourinary (GU)