Infantile polycystic kidney disease: an imaging dilemma.

Infantile and adult type polycystic kidney diseases are 2 disparate genetic disorders and generally are easily distinguishable on the basis of clinical, pathologic, and radiologic findings. We present 3 children with infantile polycystic kidney disease, ages 9 months to 6 years, in whom the excretory urogram and/or renal ultrasound or gross anatomical appearance of the kidneys resembled adult polycystic kidney disease. The findings from these 3 patients emphasize the importance of renal and liver biopsies in the diagnosis of cystic kidney disease in young children.