I understand that several of the suspected bacteria are very difficult and expensive to detect and culture in the laboratory. Each cases caught before major kidney damage occurs would also free-up a donor kidney for someone else. At the present time the only way to diagnose infection is by cyst puncture. This involves placing a long needle into the back and sampling the fluid for culture. Many years ago this was done routinely but we learned that this actually accelerated the disease by distroying more kidney tissue and the results of these studies were not conclusive.
Attention is now on genetic research of polycystic kid dis and how cysts come to be formed.
No invasion beyond renal capsule. No renal vein invasion. You should also have a repeat CAT scan or MRI every year because there is an increased chance of a second kidney cancer in your other kidney. This is ongoing study. It is estimated that PKD will be one of the first kid diseases to be treated with gene therapy.