[Magnetic resonance imaging of the normal and the pathological knee in the child].

The results of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies performed on the knee region of 60 children including 20 normally growing subjects are reported. In healthy children, MRI permitted to study the normal maturation of bone marrow and cartilaginous structures. The patients studied had bone tumors (11 patients), rheumatoid arthritis (8 patients), lesions of traumatic origin (7 patients), osteochondritis (4 patients), vascular and tissular dysplasia (3 patients), osteomyelitis (3 patients) and soft-tissue tumors (3 patients).

Use of low-osmolality contrast medium does not increase prevalence of medullary sponge kidney.

To assess the prevalence of intrapapillary linear collections of contrast medium as well as of homogeneous papillary blush on excretory urograms obtained with a low-osmolality contrast medium, iohexol was used in 300 patients. Intrapapillary linear collections of contrast medium (ie, three or more linear collections of contrast material within a papilla) were found in 10 (9.5%) of the 105 patients with renal stone disease and two (1.

[Respective role of the size, location and composition of the calculus as determinants of therapeutic success after extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy in renal lithiasis].

We evaluated the respective role of size, location and composition of renal stones as determinants of the outcome of extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL). The analysis of the chemical composition and of the morphology of the fragments eliminated by hundred patients who underwent ESWL has been made by X-rays diffraction. Results showed that the larger the stone, the higher the risk of having to perform an extra intervention (additional sessions of ESWL, percutaneous nephrostolithotomy, nephrolitholapaxy) or of finding residual fragments at the three month check-point.

Magnetic resonance imaging of nontraumatic shoulder instability in children.

Nontraumatic shoulder instability is infrequent in children. We examined prospectively with high-field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) 11 patients with this disorder, including 2 with Holt-Oram syndrome and 11 healthy control subjects. The MR findings in the glenohumeral joint in normally growing children are presented.

Is tomography of intervertebral disc calcification useful in children?

In the past ten years, we have found cervical intervertebral disc calcifications in three children on plain films of the cervical spine made because of cervical pain. In each case, we required further radiological investigations, antero-posterior and lateral linear tomography for two children and an axial computed tomography for one child. In each case, tomography revealed no supplementary useful information.

Spontaneous regression of intervertebral disc calcifications in a child.

This article presents the case of a boy who complained of cervical and thoracic spine pain for the first time at the age of nine. Plain films of cervical and thoracic spine showed calcifications of intervertebral disc C4-C5, C5-C6, C6-C7 and D3-D4. The symptoms disappeared after conservative therapy.

Medullary sponge kidney on axial computed tomography: comparison with excretory urography.

To evaluate features of medullary sponge kidney (MSK) on computed tomography (CT), 4-mm-thick axial slices without intravenous contrast material were first made in 13 patients through 24 kidneys which showed images of MSK on excretory urograms. On CT, papillary calcifications were found in eleven kidneys. In five of these kidneys, the calcifications were not detectable on plain films.

Does medullary sponge kidney cause nephrolithiasis?

The prevalence of medullary sponge kidney in patients with nephrolithiasis and the issue of whether or not medullary sponge kidney has a role in the pathogenesis of renal stones are controversial. We studied the excretory urograms of 280 patients with nephrolithiasis and 280 patients without either nephrolithiasis or a history of renal stones to determine the frequencies of medullary sponge kidney in the two groups. The criterion for the diagnosis of medullary sponge kidney was the presence of a minimum of three linear or round collections of contrast material within one renal papilla.

Cervicooccipital hinge changes during longterm hemodialysis.

A radiological survey of the upper cervical spine was carried out in all our unit cases treated by longterm hemodialysis for at least 8 years. There were 23 patients, 16 men, 7 women, whose mean age was 56.5 years.

[So-called "renal" idiopathic hypercalciuria most often has a dietary origin].

Among renal stone formers with idiopathic hypercalciuria, patients who remain hypercalciuric despite low calcium intake have often been regarded as having a primary renal leak of calcium, i.e. renal hypercalciuria.

Dietary factors and medullary sponge kidneys as causes of the so-called idiopathic renal leak of calcium.

Out of 89 stone formers with idiopathic hypercalciuria, 51 remained hypercalciuric on a low calcium diet over 5 days: a renal leak of calcium could thus have been suspected in them. Dietary factors such as high sodium or high animal protein intake, and metabolic factors such as obesity with or without hyperinsulinemia, which all might account for the hypercalciuria of these patients, have been evaluated. This evaluation revealed conditions known to be associated with hypercalciuria in 37 of these 51 patients: 15 had hypercalciuria related to a high sodium intake, 7 had severe hyperuricosuria (greater than 1 g/24 h) reflecting a high animal protein intake, 20 were obese (greater than 120% of ideal weight) with (7 cases) or without (13 cases) concomitant high fasting plasma level of insulin (greater than 18 microU/ml).

Follow-up of renal morphology and growth of 141 children operated for vesicoureteral reflux: a retrospective computerized study.

This study relates the postoperative evolution after ureterovesical reimplantation for vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) in 141 children who were ten years old or younger at the time of surgery. Renal growth and morphology were evaluated 2 and 5 years after surgery. We estimated renal growth by measuring the ratio of the bipolar parenchymal thickness to the total length of the kidney.

Tubulopathy in nephrolithiasis: consequence rather than cause.

To address whether a renal tubular dysfunction is encountered in a particular patient subgroup with urolithiasis, the following parameters of tubular function were measured in urine taken in the morning from 214 stone formers after fasting: pH, excretion of lysozyme and gamma-glutamyl transferase (gamma-GT); fractional excretion (FE) of glucose, insulin, Mg, K, and HCO3 after an alkali loading; and the renal threshold for phosphate (TmP/GFR). The following diagnoses were made in the patient group: primary hyperparathyroidism (N = 8), medullary sponge kidneys (N = 21), hyperuricemia (N = 10), cystinuria (N = 2), struvite stone disease (N = 6), idiopathic hypercalciuria of the absorptive (N = 25), dietary (N = 69) or renal (N = 7) type, and normocalciuric idiopathic urolithiasis (N = 66). In 31% of the patients TmP/GFR was below 0.

Renal growth retardation in children: sign suggestive of vesicoureteral reflux?

Of 141 children undergoing surgery for vesicoureteral reflux detected by voiding cystourethrography, preoperative excretory urography demonstrated signs suggestive of vesicoureteral reflux in 154 (67.5%) of 228 refluxing ureter. In 48 refluxing ureters (21%) renal growth retardation was the only sign; the latter was appreciated by applying the index described by Hodson, that is, the ratio of bipolar parenchymal thickness to total renal length.

Incidence and significance of a widened esophageal hiatus at CT scan.

We studied the anatomy of the esophageal hiatus using axial CT scans in 320 patients. Normally, the diaphragmatic crura are tightly opposed and closely related to the esophagus. Widening of the esophageal hiatus is readily demonstrated by CT as a separation of the diaphragmatic crura and an increased distance between the crura and esophageal wall.

Prevalence of periarticular calcifications in pyrophosphate arthropathy and their relation to nodal osteoarthrosis.

X-rays of the shoulder, hand, and knee joints from 30 patients with pyrophosphate arthropathy (PA) and 30 age and sex matched control subjects were examined for periarticular, dense, homogeneous calcifications considered to be apatite deposits. They were found in 30% of the patients with PA compared with 3.3% of the controls.

[Incidence of associated malformations in 141 children operated on for vesico-ureteral reflux].

A 141 children study: Clinical study of 141 children less than 10 years old with vesico-ureteric reflux. No specific associated birth defects was noted.

[Computerized retrospective study of 141 children operated on for vesico-ureteral reflux].

Follow-up study of 141 cases of vesico-ureteric reflux (less than 10 years old) treated by Cohen's method. Computerized study, 5 years after treatment, with analysis of the influence of different parameters (type of VUR, age, sex, urinary infection or not, space of time between diagnosis and treatment) on the renal parenchymal radiographic measurements ( Hodson 's method). The youngest is the child when he is treated, the best is the functional result.