title: Urinary erythrocyte morphology as a diagnostic aid in haematuria.
abstract: The value of urinary erythrocyte morphology in diagnosing glomerular and nonglomerular haematuria was studied using phase contrast microscopy in 105 patients with significant haematuria. Fifty-eight (93.6%) out of 62 patients with glomerulonephritis had dysmorphic erythrocytes and 40 (93.1%) out of the 43 patients with nonglomerular disease had isomorphic erythrocytes in the urine. A mixed picture of glomerular and nonglomerular haematuria was seen in 5 patients. The sensitivity was 93.6%, the specificity was 97.7% and the positive predictive value was 98.3% for glomerulonephritis in patients with dysmorphic haematuria. The positive predictive value for a nonglomerular source of bleeding was 96.7% with isomorphic haematuria. It is concluded that phase contrast microscopic examination of erythrocytes in urine is a simple, inexpensive and noninvasive technique that reliably distinguishes between glomerular and nonglomerular bleeding in patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nephrology, General Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ahmad
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Segasothy
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Morad
mesh_terms: D004906:Erythrocyte Count; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000473:pathology*; D004913:Erythrocytes, Abnormal / Q000473:pathology; D005921:Glomerulonephritis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000652:urine; D006417:Hematuria / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology / Q000652:urine*; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D007669:Kidney Calculi / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000652:urine; D008858:Microscopy, Phase-Contrast; D016037:Single-Blind Method
chemical_list: D006454:Hemoglobins