Radiology, Vol 153, 291-301, Copyright © 1984 by Radiological Society of North America
Cystic dilatations of the upper urinary tract: a radiologist's developmental model
HZ Mellins
The ureteral bud in the embryonic kidney grows and branches dichotomously
for 15 generations. This branching tree is modified by a series of
narrowings and expansions and becomes the ureter, the renal pelvis, the
calyces, and the collecting tubules. Simultaneously, the ureteral bud
induces the formation of nephrons. If many of the renal cystic diseases and
congenital dilatations of the renal pelvis and ureter are viewed as a
series of growth disturbances along the branching ureteral bud, their
morphology and pathophysiology become clarified even though their etiology
is often not known.
