Quote:
Originally Posted by SupDock
I never see US used for stones unless the patient is pregnant or Low Dose CT is not available
This is from Uptodate
Ultrasound is less accurate and demonstrates greater variability than CT of the abdomen and pelvis without contrast for the diagnosis of nephrolithiasis (image 4). Pooled sensitivity and specificity of ultrasound is 0.70 (95% CI 0.67-0.73) and 0.75 (95% CI 0.73-0.78), respectively [40]. Because CT detects nephrolithiasis not diagnosed with ultrasound, a CT is sometimes performed after a negative ultrasound to evaluate for a stone if the index of clinical suspicion remains high. Ultrasound is less accurate than CT at measuring stone size, stone number, and defining ureteral location. Thus, a positive ultrasound may lead to a follow-up CT to enable treatment planning.
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The problem with U/S is it is very user dependent tons of shitty techs out there or are expected to do things they are not qualified to do . CT has limitations as well I can see a stone in a ureterocele /UVJ but on CT it will look like it is the Bladder .
Most tech will just look for hydro and not bother going further and tracking the ureter all the way down trying to find the stone , being also an X-ray my training just wants to try and avoid this patient getting radiation so I would say I find it 90% of the time.