Evaluation of suspected renal colic patients with unenhanced low-dose multi-detector computed tomography.

OBJECTIVES To determine the proportion of correctly diagnosed ureteric calculi and alternate diagnoses using unenhanced low dose multidetector CT KUB. DESIGN Descriptive - prospective study. SETTING Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi between November 2006 and October 2007. SUBJECTS One hundred and four patients underwent low dose multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) KUB. RESULTS Ninety (47 males and 43 females with age range of 17 - 79 years, mean 40 years) were included in the statistical analysis while 14 were excluded. Eighteen out of ninety (20%) were classified as definitely having ureteric calculi on the composite reference. Among the 18,17 were correctly identified on unenhanced low dose MDCT, giving a proportion of (17/18) 94.4%, Pearson Correlation of 0.898 and Fishers exact test significance < 0.001. 29/90 (32%) had alternative diagnosis and 42/90 (47%) had no abnormality detected on unenhanced low dose MDCT. CONCLUSION This study shows that, unenhanced low dose MDCT KUB can be effectively used for evaluation of suspected renal colic patients as demonstrated by the statistically significant correctly detected ureteric calculi.