Vesicoureteral reflux in the Hispanic child with urinary tract infection

Hispanic individuals have become the largest minority in the United States. Prior studies of minorities revealed real differences in vesicouretal reflux rates between white and black Americans. We studied the incidence of reflux in the Hispanic population to see if the reflux rate was different from that of the white population.

We reviewed the results of voiding cystourethrograms performed in Hispanic children as our normal screening for reflux and compared them to voiding cystourethrograms results in a group of white children. The children were identified as Hispanic or white by their parents on an intake form.

Of the Hispanic children 27% had vesicoureteral reflux on voiding cystogram, while 32% of the white children had vesicoureteral reflux.

Hispanic patients presenting with the first urinary tract infection seem to be afflicted with vesicoureteral reflux as often as their white contemporaries. Hispanic children should be screened as aggressively as white children when they present with urinary tract infections.