Studying the Predictability of the Presence of Ureteral Stones in Patients with Negative Sonographic Findings

In recent years¡ Computed Tomography (CT scan) has become the Gold Standard for detecting urinary stones. This study was conducted to predict the size of possible passage of ureteral stones based on clinical signs, lab data (e.g. Ultrasounds) in patients with small passable stones and to prevent CT scan, which requires high costs and x-ray exposure.
In this cross- sectional study, fifty consecutive patients from emergency room who had clinical symptoms of renal colic and urinary tract stones were recruited by simple non-random sampling. After obtaining the primary data, all of them underwent sonography (US), and in those without sings of stone in US¡ CT scan was performed. Based on the CT scan, the patients were divided into two main groups: 1) patients who had no ureteral stones or had ureteral stones Among our proposed variables, previous history of urinary stone (p=0.05), irritative urinary symptoms (e.g. dysuria, frequency and urgency) (p=0.001), gross hematuria (p=0.049) and degree of hydronephrosis (p=0.029) had statistically significant relationship with the presence, size and spontaneous expulsive potential of ureteral stones.
Based on our results, negative history of urinary stones, absence of irritative urinary symptoms and gross hematuria and absence or mild degree of hydronephrosis in sonography were in favor of small (