Diagnosis of pathological conditions of kidney by two-dimensional and three-dimensional ultrasonographic imaging in dogs.

AIM: The objective of the study was to obtain and compare two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) ultrasonographic images of the kidney in different disease conditions.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, 11 clinical cases of different age groups of dogs suffering from kidney diseases were diagnosed by 2D and 3D ultrasonography at Teaching Veterinary Clinical Complex, Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Hisar. The ultrasound (US) machine used for this study was 3D US machine (Nemio-XG: Toshiba, Japan) having four-dimensional (4D) volumetric probe. The images were acquired with 3-6 MHz 2D curvilinear transducer and 4.2-6 MHz 4D volumetric curvilinear transducer.

RESULTS: Nephritis was diagnosed in four dogs aged between 5 months and 6 years. In all the cases of nephritis diffuse increase in echogenicity of kidney, parenchyma was observed. Two dogs with end-stage kidney disease were also diagnosed. In both 2D and 3D ultrasonography, the kidney size was decreased and architectural details were also lost in them. The cases of regional renal diseases diagnosed were hydronephrosis and nephrolithiasis. Dilated renal pelvis was the common finding in all the three cases of hydronephrosis in both 2D and 3D ultrasonogram. Nephroliths were observed in one case with the history of hematuria and oliguria. The multifocal renal disease diagnosed in this study was dysplastic polycystic kidney. In 2D ultrasonogram, six anechoic cavities appeared with thin strip of renal parenchyma. In 3D ultrasonogram, the cysts appeared as black anechoic areas.

CONCLUSION: The result of the current study showed that the clinical conditions of kidney such as nephritis, end-stage kidney, hydronephrosis, polycystic kidney, and nephrolithiasis can be diagnosed easily using 2D and 3D ultrasonography. Visualization of renal structures was clear in 2D ultrasonography in the conditions of nephritis and end-stage kidney. However, the conditions such as hydronephrosis, polycystic kidney, and nephrolithiasis were visualized clearly in both 2D and 3D ultrasonography equally.