title: Osmotic resistance of urinary red cells in glomerular and non-glomerular haematuria.
abstract: The determination of glomerular or non-glomerular origin of urinary red blood cells (U-RBC) is an important goal in the management of haematuric children. Morphological changes of glomerular RBC are secondary to cell membrane damage, due, in part, to the hypotonic osmotic stress to which U-RBC are submitted during their passage through tubular segments. This study was performed on 2 urine specimens obtained from 30 patients with a known cause of haematuria. After centrifugation, both sediments were resuspended in two saline solutions (at 200 mosm/l and at 300 mosm/l) where they remained for 90 min. The number of U-RBC per microliters in each (U-RBC 200 and U-RBC 300) was determined by microscopic count in Burker's chamber. The U-RBC 200/U-RBC 300 ratio was calculated for all patients. We found that in non-glomerular haematuria the ratio was near to 1, whereas cases of glomerular origin had lower values. The discriminant threshold between this ratio was 0.76 (p < 0.001). We suggest that determination of osmotic resistance of U-RBC may be a reliable method to differentiate the origin of bleeding in haematuric children.
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Institute, Ferrara University, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Voghenzi
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Soriani
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Antonio
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Camerini
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000378:metabolism*; D006417:Hematuria / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism*; D006470:Hemorrhage / Q000150:complications; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D007674:Kidney Diseases / Q000150:complications; D007678:Kidney Glomerulus / Q000098:blood supply; D009997:Osmotic Pressure