Urinary tract infection in children: putting radiology in its place.

Bacterial infection of the child's urinary tract can be viewed as a phenomenon in which bacterial virulence factors outweigh host resistance mechanisms. Structural abnormalities that compromise the host account for only a small part of the picture, but it is important to discover these abnormalities, and uroradiologic examinations can do this superbly. There are many ways to image the kidneys and the lower urinary tract, but more important than debating which of these tests to use is deciding who should be studied, why, and when, and what it means when an abnormality is discovered.