Introduction

Urinary tract infection (UTI) in children has been the subject of debate and controversy for many decades. As data are emerging, so well-held beliefs are thrown into doubt. Imaging has been one of the major cornerstones in the investigation of children with a proven UTI. This has arisen because there was a widely held belief that a UTI in a child identified a susceptible population of children in whom active treatment often including surgery could alter the natural history. However the advent of routine prenatal ultrasound examinations of the fetus coupled with the introduction of 99mTc DMSA scintigraphy and the results of a few longitudinal studies have caused serious rethinking of the role of imaging, of what kind of imaging should be undertaken and in which children.