If your Doctor suspests you may have a kidney stone or some problem in your kidney or bladder, you will be sent for a special kind of X-Ray called an Intra-Venous Urogram, IVU for short.

The test has always to be performed in a hospital X-ray department, takes a little over an hour and does not hurt at all.

The test

An IVU looks at the whole of your urinary system including

• Kidneys - you have two
• Bladder
• Tubes that connect them (ureters)

What to expect

You will be asked to wear a special gown and a plain X-Ray of your abdomen will be taken. This is the control picture.

You will have some special fluid dye injected into one of your veins, usually into an arm. The dye can make you feel very hot for a few minutes but it is not harmful and this feeling soon disappears. The dye is harmless.

The dye circulates through your blood stream and goes to your kidneys. Your kidneys get rid of the dye in the urine so it passes down the ureters to the bladder. The doctors can then watch the dye on an X-ray screen, as it goes through your kidneys and then through the ureters to the bladder. This test is to see if there is any abnormality in the urinary system.

You can go home as soon as the test is over.

It can take 3-7 days for test results to come through. How long will depend on why you are having the test.

In the case of kidney stone the results will need to known quickly as very occasionally the stone can block one of the ureters. This will need to be corrected as soon as possible.

The results

Usually, the X-rays are examined by a specialist in radiography and a report typed up. The report and X-rays are then sent to your specialist or GP, who will then give the results to you. If your GP has sent you for the test, the results will be sent directly to their surgery.

Recommended web sites

Intravenous Urography