title: [Urolithiasis in children in Tunisia: current features based on a series of 104 cases].
abstract: The clinical and laboratory characteristics of urolithiasis in Tunisian children have evolved continuously since the 1980s. This retrospective study defines the current status of urolithiasis in children in Tunisia.
  
  
  METHODS
  All 104 children (age: 8-192 months) of our series were hospitalized for urolithiasis. A first-line metabolic, urine and plasma work-up was performed in 96 patients. Physical and chemical analysis of the stones was performed by stereomicroscopy and infrared spectroscopy, respectively. Statistical analysis of the results was performed with SPSS 11.0 software. The Chi-square test was used for comparison of percentages.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our study shows a male predominance of urolithiasis with a sex ratio of 1.53. The clinical features were dominated by urinary tract infections (28.8%). Stones were situated in the upper tract in 75% of cases and the lower tract in 25% of cases. Urine culture was positive in 15 patients. Identification of the crystalline composition showed that whewellite was the most frequent crystalline species in children (80.0%) and infants (57.1%). Ammonium acid urate was more frequent in infants.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this study, we observed changes in the epidemiological characteristics (bladder stones and infection stones) of urolithiasis in children over the last decade in Tunisia. The patient's age is an important factor that must be taken into account during aetiopathogenic work-up.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Biochimie-Toxicologie, CHU Monastir, Tunisie. akram_alaya@yahoo.co.uk
authors.forename: Akram
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alaya
authors.forename: Mohsen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Belgith
authors.forename: Riadh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jouini
authors.forename: Abdellatif
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nouri
authors.forename: Mohamed Fadhel
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Najjar
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014416:Tunisia; D014545:Urinary Calculi / Q000737:chemistry / Q000175:diagnosis