title: Paediatric urolithiasis in central coast region of Tunisia: clinical characteristics.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To show an outline of the clinical and biological characteristics of paediatric urolithiasis among Tunisian children in the coast region.
  
  
  METHODS
  This retrospective study included 168 children under the age of 16 years presented with urinary stones (100 boys and 68 girls). Patients were reviewed in a multi-centric study with regard to age at diagnosis, sex, history, and physical, laboratory, and radiologic findings. The physical and chemical analysis of stones was carried out respectively by a stereomicroscope and by infra-red spectroscopy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The sex ratio was 1.47. The clinical presentation of this pathology was dominated by abdominal pain (28%), hematuria (25.6%), dysuria (16.7%) and urinary tract infection (14.3%). Stones were located in the upper urinary tract in 75.6% of cases. Of the urine cultures, 14.3% were positive. Whewellite was more frequent in children stones than in infants (p < 0.05) and was the main component in 46.4% of stone section and 55.4% in stone surface.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The male prevalence of paediatric urolithiasis is progressively decreasing in Tunisia. The epidemiological profile of renal stones in our country has changed towards a predominance of calcium oxalate stone and upper tract location.
authors.affiliation: University Hospital, Department of Biochemistry and Toxicology, 5000 Monastir, Tunisia. akram_alaya@yahoo.co.uk
authors.forename: Akram
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alaya
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; D052878:Urolithiasis / Q000175:diagnosis*