Diagnosis of Kidney stones involves physical examination, laboratory tests, analysis of medical history and image testing. If symptoms of kidney stones such as pain in the lower back and side area, nausea, blood in the urine, pain while urinating etc occur, one must visit a urologist immediately to initiate the diagnosis of kidney stones.
Diagnosis of kidney stones would commence with a study of your medical history. Your doctor would like to analyze whether you or anyone in your immediate family has ever suffered from kidney stones. If yes, then what were the relief and preventive measures, adopted to terminate the stones, what is the composition of the stones to detect the cause behind stone formation? This goes a long way in assisting with choosing the method of treatment best suited to the patient in question.
The second step of diagnosing kidney stones incorporates a physical examination. While evaluating the present symptoms the urologist may try tapping on the kidney area. If the pain sears and becomes unbearable, it is a cause for concern. In addition, a physical examination may get difficult to conduct if the patient is restless and uncomfortable. If the results of a physical reveal high body temperature, it is an indication of urinary tract infection that calls for administration of antibiotics.
The further diagnosis of kidney stones must be carried forth as mentioned below-
Firstly establish the presence or absence of kidney stones
Start pain management measures to relieve the patient
Determine the location of the kidney stone, if present
Determine the composition of the kidney stone
Conduct an analysis of any stones from a previous attack
Three main laboratory tests that are a part of thorough diagnosis of kidney stones include:
Imaging Tests- Imaging, tests used to diagnose kidney stones include ultrasound, intravenous pyelogram (IVP), retrograde pyelogram, and computerized tomography (CT) scan.
Blood Tests- Blood tests may help determine levels of blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, calcium, phosphate, and uric acid for patients with known or suspected kidney stones.
Urine Tests- Urine samples determine certain important factors such as its acidity, the presence of red or white blood cells, whether infection is present, any crystals, and elevated or decreased components that inhibit or promote stone formation.
All the above are various diagnostic measures to be adopted to detect the presence of kidney stones.
Treatment Of Kidney Stones
The symptoms that may suggest the occurrence of kidney stones are common to other medical conditions that may lead to misdiagnosis. Thus, it would be prudent to confirm the diagnosis received by double-checking with another doctor and seeking a second opinion. Misdiagnosis is extremely common, thus, the necessity of a second opinion and several medical tests increases. A study of Patient Safety Incidents (PSIs) by Health Grades found that “Failure to Rescue", meaning failure to diagnose and treat in time, was the most common cause of a patient safety incident, with a rate of 155 per 1,000 hospitalized patients.
Several reasons contribute to a wrong diagnosis. A patient may himself contribute to misdiagnosis by a self-diagnosis instead of taking professional help. Furthermore, keeping any facts and symptoms away from your doctor may lead to a wrong diagnosis. Failure to complete the tests ordered by your doctor is another reason for misdiagnosis. Doctors may make wrong diagnosis too, misreading the symptoms or due to false positives and negatives generated in medical tests.
The diseases for which Kidney stone is a possible alternative diagnosis in their lists include acute appendicitis and intestinal cystitis.
Appendicitis is inflammation of the appendix. Acute Appendicitis may be confused with kidney stones because of the similarity of symptoms such as abdominal pain. Appendicitis, though uncommon, is very serious, and equally difficult to diagnose. Misdiagnosis of appendicitis is particularly common in children and infants with abdominal pain.
Intestinal Cystitis is another disease difficult to diagnose. It has symptoms such as pain in the pelvic region and various urination symptoms, which are common to kidney stones too. This disease is rarely ever diagnosed correctly, and the most compelling evidence for diagnosis is often from surgery and biopsy, rather than any specific urine or blood tests.
Thus, while confirming a diagnosis of kidney stones it is important to keep the possibility of other medical conditions in mind. It must be borne in mind that similar symptoms may be related to some alternate medical condition. It would help to bring to your doctors notice, after doing some self-research, what medical conditions are associated with the symptoms in question. Your doctor would then keep all possible diseases in mind while looking for a diagnosis. This would go a long way in preventing kidney stone misdiagnosis.
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