INNOVATIVE IMAGING OF URINARY SYSTEM IN CANINE AND FELINE PATIENTS

Diseases of the urinary system are regularly encountered in daily veterinary practice. The development of increasingly efficient diagnostic tools is crucial to meet the high-quality requirements of contemporary professional standards. This project had many purposes, aiming to describe pioneering methods, protocols and diagnosis related to imaging of ureters and urinary bladder, chosen as they represent daily diagnostic challenges in daily routine practice. This project consisted of three papers: the first paper is a prospective pilot project concerning quantitative CEUS exam applied to distinguish neoplastic and non-neoplastic lesions of the urinary bladder in small animals; the second paper is a multicentric retrospective observational project describing the CT appearance of a novel CVC congenital malformation; the third paper is a retrospective study conducted on canine healthy patients, aimed at assessing the visibility of the ureters on high field MR on T1 and T2 sequences avoiding the use of paramagnetic contrast agents. The results of this project allowed to obtain objectifiable parameters for the distinction of neoplastic and non-neoplastic lesions of urinary bladder using quantitative CEUS; we also described the CT appearance of the transcaval ureter, a malfomaration of the CVC never described in veterinary medicine; finally, we described the feasibility of evaluation of normal ureters through high-field MR on T2-weighted sequences, in healthy canine patients. In conclusion, this project allowed to describe new diseases that could affect urinary tract function and contributes to the development of new methods and protocols with the potential to reduce the invasiveness of certain diagnostic procedures related to the urinary tract.