The Time-Distance Diagram of the Ureteral Transport

Abstract

In many cases an assessment of the function of the upper urinary tract by using merely the excretion urogram is very difficult. The excretion urogram represents an instantaneous documentation, thus allowing an exact registration of the dynamics to a limited degree only. Even monitor recordings of the peristalsis are difficult to objectify in cases of disturbed motility, as we then have to deal with partially very fast flow processes. This is the reason why in the past decades a great number of invasive and non-invasive measuring procedures have been developed all over the world. Due to the differences in the applied measuring techniques and the large physiological variation range among patients and experimental animals we now find various, even contradictory interpretations of the peristaltic transport. This dissension can partly be explained by the fact, that in most of the research works only a few parameters have been measured, while the influence of all the important parameters has been neglected (Lutzeyer 1963). Beside the multitude of X-ray examination and documentation methods, nuclearmedical measurement and ultrasound examination are also available as further non-invasive procedures. By means of measuring probes installed in the ureter lumen the flow velocity, the ureter’s cross section and the electrical muscle potential can be measured. The propelled volume is determined by the drop-counting-method and indirectly by a pressure measuring procedure.