Interventional US procedures in the kidney diseases

In 1978, I and my colleagues developed a real-time puncture system using a mechanical sector scanner and we have been performing many interventional procedures for kidney diseases. In this paper, the following topics will be presented. Between 1978 and 1999, selective renal biopsy for medical renal diseases was performed on 805 cases. Between 1982 and 1999, selective renal biopsy for renal tumors was performed on 152 patients. The safety and the accuracy of these procedures will be discussed. Histological characteristics of the tumor was analyzed by studying DNA ploidy and cell proliferating characteristics in the biopsy and surgical specimens of 39 patients. Ploidy patterns of the biopsy specimen was useful for the prediction of the characteristics of surgical specimens in the patients with renal cell carcinoma.