Putty kidney

Last revised by Arlene Campos ◉ on 24 Feb 2025

Citation, DOI, disclosures and article data

Citation:

Stanislavsky A, Campos A, Silverstone L, et al. Putty kidney. Reference article, Radiopaedia.org (Accessed on 14 Mar 2025) https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-12892

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-12892

Permalink:

https://radiopaedia.org/articles/12892?embed_domain=external.radpair.com%2525252527%252525255B0%252525255D%2525252527%252525255B0%252525255D

rID:

12892

Article created:

29 Jan 2011, Alexandra Stanislavsky ◉

Disclosures:

At the time the article was created Alexandra Stanislavsky had no recorded disclosures.

View Alexandra Stanislavsky's current disclosures

Last revised:

24 Feb 2025, Arlene Campos ◉

Disclosures:

At the time the article was last revised Arlene Campos had no financial relationships to ineligible companies to disclose.

View Arlene Campos's current disclosures

Revisions:

15 times, by 12 contributors - see full revision history and disclosures

Systems:

Urogenital

Sections:

Signs

Tags:

kidney, tb, rewrite

Synonyms:

Putty kidneys

A putty kidney refers to a pattern of renal calcification associated with renal tuberculosis conventionally described on plain radiography. The calcification can be large, round or oval, dense or very homogeneous and ground glass-like, representing calcified caseous tissue within dilated calyces ^3,4.

This condition is due to the superimposition of ureteral obstruction on renal parenchymal tuberculosis.

Premkumar et al. labeled calcification 'putty-like' if any faint area of uniform calcification was more than 1 cm in diameter ⁴. Putty calcification needs to be differentiated from a lobar pattern of calcification, wherein dense calcific rims outline the periphery of distorted renal lobes. Lobar calcification represents an end-stage appearance, associated with autonephrectomy.