IntraVenous Urogram
An intravenous urogram is a series of X-rays taken to show the urinary tract, i.e. from the kidneys to the bladder. Since they are all soft tissue, they cannot be seen on a normal X-ray.
To get around this problem, a contrast or “dye” is injected into the patient and the “dye” collects in the urine, produced in the kidneys and subsequently in the rest of the urine tract. Since this “dye” can be seen on X-ray, the whole tract lights up wherever the urine mixed with “dye” flows.
Usually an intravenous urogram (IVU) is performed to identify abnormalities in the flow of urine from the kidneys to the bladder.
This is an example of an IVU:
You can see the bright line from the left kidney (at the top of the X-ray) to the bladder (at the bottom). There’s urine in the bladder already, which came from the left kidney. Spot anything out of place? Something is missing.
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For one, there was no urine coming from the right kidney in the initial X-rays. Later, however, you can see urine coming down but it’s slow compared to the left side. Furthermore, the kidney and the ureter (the tube transporting urine from the kidney to the bladder) are swollen. What’s the cause?
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Here’s the culprit: a stone in the ureter, just before entering the bladder.You can see the urine down to the stone and then there’s a gap where urine did not flow. Can’t see the stone?
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This might help. The stone is the small bright oval-shaped spot just above and the the right of the bladder, which looks bright since it is filled with urine. But that’s not all….
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If you look carefully, there’s another abnormality … in the left ureter this time… there are TWO ureters right down to the bladder. This is an abnormality since birth and it doesn’t do any harm.
