Gilbert J. Thomas

Roentgenology of Renal Tuberculosis1

THERE is very little in the medical literature of the past five years which has added much to our fundamental knowledge concerning the diagnosis and treatment of renal tuberculosis. Although one of us, in many communications, has repeatedly stressed the importance of bilateral pyelograms in the diagnosis of the early lesions of the disease, this method of examination has not obtained its rightful place of importance. Few published papers have mentioned the retrograde pyelogram as revealing findings that are of great diagnostic importance, while many articles contain discussions about the value of excretory urography. As late as 1937 a world-renowned European surgeon published an article in which he condemned the ascending pyelogram as rarely necessary. In his opinion the diagnosis of renal tuberculosis can be made by ureteral catheterization and the finding of pus cells and bacilli of tuberculosis in the catheterized urine. The present paper is in the nature of a review of the diagnostic and treatment dat...