Help required with my medical research proposal?

I'm thinking of conducting some research into CT urology (kidneys, ureter and bladder) and patient positioning for identifying the position of renal calculi. Doctors I have worked within placement in hospitals around Wales either position their patients supine (on their back) or prone (on there front) and I'm wondering if there are reasons behind their technique?? Also, is the patients position written in protocols or is it purely doctors preference?? Any help with answering my questions would be gratefully recieved, thanks!!

Help required with my medical research proposal?
Here is a combined study from the Department of Radiology, Division of Abdominal Imaging and Intervention, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, 75 Francis St, Boston, MA; Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan (M.J.); and Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass. published as:





Multi–Detector Row CT Urography: Comparison of Strategies for Depicting the Normal Urinary Collecting System.





Following is the link to this paper:





http://splweb.bwh.harvard.edu:8000/pages...





Patients were examined in both supine and prone positions to investigate the effect of altering patient position and supplementally infusing normal saline after injecting contrast medium.Saline administration, combining prone and supine positioning significantly improved opacification of both the right and left distal ureter. The rationale for examining the patients in the prone position was to distend the lumbar ureters.





I hope this information would help your research into CT Urography.





Good luck!!
Reply:Positioning is almost always the doctor's preference. However, they take into consideration what they want a picture of, the method they're using, and what the limitations of that method are. When it comes to KUBs they want to see the whole of the urinary system. the only way to really visualize the kidneys, ureters, and bladder is to take the radiograph from a supine or prone position. If the patient was lateral the KUb would only show one side of the system, and would not provide as accurate a picture.

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