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Tests and diagnosis
By Mayo Clinic staffMany kidney stones go unnoticed until they cause acute symptoms — specifically, the pain of a stone going through your ureter. Sometimes, however, kidney stones are discovered in the course of looking for the cause of chronic urinary tract infections or blood in the urine.
If your doctor suspects you have kidney stones, you're likely to have a blood analysis to look for excess calcium or uric acid and a 24-hour collection of urine to check whether you're excreting too many stone-forming minerals or too few inhibiting substances.
You may also have one or more of the following imaging tests:
- Computerized tomography (CT) scan. This imaging test has become the standard of care for evaluating acute kidney stones. It's rapidly performed, can identify stones regardless of composition and doesn't require the use of contrast dye.
- Abdominal X-ray. An abdominal X-ray can visualize most kidney stones and can help to judge changes in the size of a stone over time.
- Ultrasound. Instead of X-rays, this diagnostic technique combines high-frequency radio waves and computer processing to view your internal organs. It's safe, painless and noninvasive, but it may miss small stones, especially if they're located in a ureter or your bladder.
- Intravenous pyelography (excretory urogram). This study can be useful in determining the location of stones in the urinary system and can define the degree of blockage caused by a stone. A contrast dye is injected into a vein in your arm and a series of X-rays is taken as the dye moves through your kidneys, ureters and bladder. This study has largely been replaced by the CT scan but is still useful in limited circumstances.
If you're about to pass a stone, your doctor may ask you to urinate through a strainer so that the stone can be recovered and analyzed.
