MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was approved by the institutional review board and informed consent was waived. Between January 2007 and January 2011, the clinical data and imaging studies of 28 patients older than 18 years diagnosed with renal anomaly at the authors' institution were retrospectively reviewed. Renal anomalies in this study included only those with abnormality in position and in form.
RESULTS: Of these 28 patients, 22 underwent imaging studies and their results constituted the material of this study. Of the 22 patients, 14 had horseshoe kidneys (HSK), four had crossed renal ectopia and four had malrotation. Sixteen patients were men and six were women. The patients ranged in age from 19 to 74 years (mean age 51.1 years). Clinical presentations were abdominal pain (13), fever (13), haematuria (4), palpable mass (2), asymptomatic (2), polyuria (1) dysuria (1), blurred vision (1), and headache with weakness of left extremities (1). Imaging studies included abdominal radiograph (15), intravenous pyelography (IVP) (8), retrograde pyelography (RP) (4), ultrasonography (US) (7), and computed tomography (CT) (9). Associated complications included urinary tract stones (17), urinary tract infection (16), hydronephrosis (12), and tumours (2). Abdominal radiograph suggested renal anomalies in nine out of 15 studies. IVP, RP, US and CT suggested anomalies in all patients who had these studies performed. However, CT was the best imaging modality to evaluate anatomy, function and complications of patients with renal anomalies.
CONCLUSION: HSK was the most common renal anomaly, with abdominal pain and fever being the most common presentations. UTI and stones were the most common complications. IVP, RP, US and CT can be used to diagnose renal anomalies but CT is the best imaging modality to evaluate renal anatomy, function and its complications.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was performed on Varian Clinac iX, Elekta Synergy S, Siemens Oncor, and Tomotherapy. A CT phantom (Catphan-504, Phantom Laboratory, Salem, NY) was scanned for measurements of image quality including image noise, uniformity, density accuracy, spatial resolution, contrast linearity, and contrast resolution. The measurement results were analysed using in-house image analysis software. Reproducibility, position correction, and geometric accuracy were also evaluated with markers in a smaller alignment phantom. The performance evaluation compared volumetric image properties from these four systems with those from a conventional diagnostic CT (CCT).
RESULTS: It was shown that the linearity of the two kV CBCT was fairly consistent with CCT. The Elekta CBCT with half-circle 27-cm FOV had higher CT numbers than the other three systems. The image noises of the Elekta kV CBCT, Siemens MV CBCT, and Tomotherapy fan-beam CT (FBCT) are about 2-4 times higher than that of the Varian CBCT. The spatial resolutions of two kV CBCTs and two MV CBCTs were 8-11 lp/cm and 3-5 lp/cm, respectively.
CONCLUSION: Elekta CBCT provided a faster image reconstruction and low dose per scan for half-circle scanning. Varian CBCT had relatively lower image noise. Tomotherapy FBCT had the best uniformity.