Abstract
We routinely perform renal ultrasound screening for congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract (CAKUT) in all infants who undergo a health check-up in at 1 month of age. To evaluate the efficacy of our screening program, we analyzed the results of renal ultrasound examinations that had been performed over the past 8 years. Screening of 3521 infants yielded 134 positive cases (3.8%). Of these, 120 cases had renal pelvis dilatation with an anteroposterior diameter > 7.0 mm. Most of these cases resolved spontaneously before the age of 1 year. The remaining 14 infants had other anomalies, including renal hypoplasia and crossed renal ectopia. Among all infants with abnormal findings, a diagnosis was confirmed in 20 cases (0.57%). In 12 of these 20 cases, no anomaly had been detected during prenatal screening. Given that these results are similar to those of previous reports, our findings indicate that renal ultrasound screening of 1-month-old infants is effective for early detection of congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract.
