Nephrocalcinosis — Nephrolithiasis — Urolithiasis

Abstract

Calcium deposits in the kidney and urinary tract always predicate a problem. They can be difficult to identify by radiography because in the young child gas and other gut content obscures the kidney area, the ureteric pathway, and, to a lesser extent, the bladder. Although calcium is radio-opaque there may be so little calcium in any one place that it is hard to produce an image of it and this can be an almost insuperable problem on X-ray examination. Urinary calculus is a stone against which every radiologist, paediatrician and urological surgeon has stubbed his toe at one time or another; for the child and his doctor the pain and cost of this event is perceived sooner or later. Fortunately for everyone many calcium deposits in the kidney and urinary tract are easy to identify on radiological and ultrasonics examination.