Conventional CT signs in staging transitional cell tumors of the upper urinary tract

To determine conventional computed tomography (CT) signs in the diagnosis and staging of upper urinary tract tumors (UUTTs).Retrospective study was made of the CTs of 82 patients diagnosed with UUTTs. Nine CT signs were defined and compared with the pathology of the surgical specimen. A chi2 test was used for statistical analyses.We reviewed the CTs of 93 UUTTs in 82 patients, of which 36% were invasive and 12% had positive lymph nodes. Renal parenchymal invasion was found in 82% of high-grade and in 18% of low-grade tumors (p = 0.001). 94% of the tumors with signs of renal parenchymal invasion were invasive (p0.001), as well as 88% of those appearing as renal masses (p = 0.005), with a global sensitivity of 64% and specificity of 97%. The CT sensitivity and specificity of detecting infiltration of the ureter was 67 and 77%, respectively, and no sign was statistically significant. The detection of lymph node involvement had a sensitivity of 87.5% and a specificity of 98%.CT offers good sensitivity (87.5%) and specificity (98%) in the detection of lymph node involvement, and 64% sensitivity and 97% specificity for the detection of renal tumor invasion.