Masoom Raza Mirza, Muhammad Zubair, Maria Shabbir Saria, Lubna Habib, Farhat Jaleel, Muhammad Ali Channa.
Validity of microscopic hematuria as a predictor of urinary calculi.
J Surg Pak Jan ;14(3):108-11.

Objective: To determine the validity of microscopic haematuria as a predictor of urinary calculi in patients with acute renal colic presenting with acute flank pain. Study design Cross sectional study Place & duration of study: Hamdard University Hospital and other private hospitals where authors work, from July 2007 to June 2008. Patients and Methods: All adult patients who presented with complaints of acute renal colic (acute flank pain) and had urinalysis done within 72 hours of onset of pain were included in this study. Patients below the age of 12 years, those having gross haematuria and if their urinalysis was not done within 72 hours of onset of pain, were excluded. Presence of calculi was determined either by intravenous urography (IVU) or history of passing calculi per urethra. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of microscopic haematuria for urinary calculi were calculated. Results: Fifty seven patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria. There were 38(66.67%) males and 19 (33.33%)females with mean age 40.66 years (range 15-65 years). Of the urinalyses, 22 were true-positive, 9 true-negative, 7 false-positive, and 19 false-negative, yielding a sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of 53.66%, 56.25%, 75.86% and 32.14% respectively. Conclusion: Microscopic haematuria is not a sensitive or specific indicator of presence of urinary calculi in patients with acute renal colic and may not be used as a guide for further work up.

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