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Published on: October 12, 2017
Occurrence of vesicoureteral reflux in children
M Venhola1, A Hannula, N-P Huttunen
1Department of Paediatrics, University Hospital, Oulu, Finland. mika.venhola@ppshp.fi
Insights
Vesicoureteral reflux is more common in children than previously believed, occurring independently of urinary tract infections. Current guidelines for diagnosing reflux may need revision.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Nephrology
- Urology
- Diagnostic Imaging
Background:
- Vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) is often considered rare in the general population.
- Previous assumptions suggest a strong link between VUR and urinary tract infections (UTIs).
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the actual prevalence of VUR in children under 5 years old.
- To determine if VUR occurs independently of UTIs.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of 406 children under 5 years with suspected UTIs.
- Evaluation of UTI diagnostic reliability and VUR frequencies across different diagnostic certainty groups.
- Assessment of abnormal ultrasound findings in relation to UTI certainty.
Main Results:
- VUR prevalence was consistent across all UTI diagnostic reliability groups (36% in certain UTI, 28% in possible UTI, 36% in improbable UTI).
- Abnormal ultrasound findings were predominantly observed in children with a confirmed UTI diagnosis (80%).
Conclusions:
- Vesicoureteral reflux appears more prevalent in children than previously thought, even in the absence of UTIs.
- Current guidelines recommending voiding cystourethrography for reflux detection may require reevaluation.
Aim:
The reported low occurrence of vesicoureteral reflux in the general population seems implausible. We wanted to test the hypothesis that reflux is more common and more independent of urinary-tract infection than has previously been thought.
Methods:
We tested our hypothesis by analysing the characteristics of 406 consecutive children aged <5years who had been referred for consultation because of urinary-tract infection. Using data on their urine samples, we evaluated the reliability of the urinary-tract infection diagnosis and analysed the frequencies of vesicoureteral reflux and abnormal ultrasound findings in three reliability groups (A: certain urinary-tract infection, B: possible and C: improbable).
Results:
The occurrence of reflux was the same irrespective of the diagnostic reliability of urinary-tract infection (A: 98/276 [36%] versus B: 13/46 [28%] versus C: 9/25 [36%]). Most of the abnormal ultrasound findings (58/71, 80%) were found among patients with a certain diagnosis (Group A).
Conclusion:
We suggest that vesicoureteral reflux is more common in children even without urinary-tract infection than has been thought previously. The guidelines recommending a search for reflux by means of voiding cystourethrography should be reconsidered.
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