Asymptomatic microscopic hematuria as a predictor of neoplasia in the urinary tract

The Danish hematuria guidelines were revised in January 2016. Before revision, it was recommended that asymptomatic microscopic hematuria in patients more than 40 years old should be routinely urologically investigated. In the revised guidelines, patients with asymptomatic microscopic hematuria are not recommended to be investigated, irrespective of age. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether asymptomatic microscopic hematuria was predictive of neoplasia of the urinary tract in a referred cohort of patients.

All patients older than 40 years referred from primary care to private clinics and public hospitals in the Central Denmark Region for evaluation of asymptomatic microscopic hematuria in a 2 year period from January 2014 to December 2015 were included retrospectively. All patients had been routinely investigated with computed tomography urography and outpatient flexible cystoscopy. Patients' age and gender were recorded and the final diagnosis after full investigation was retrieved.

In total, 1305 patients (492 males and 813 females) were included. Eleven patients (0.8%) were diagnosed with neoplasia in the urinary tract, including non-invasive Ta bladder tumor (n = 6), benign tumors in the kidney (n = 2), invasive bladder cancer (n = 2) and carcinoma in situ in the urinary bladder (n = 1). None of the patients had renal cancer or upper urinary tract tumors as the final diagnosis.

A minority of patients with malignancies or non-invasive tumors would have been missed based on the revised Danish hematuria referral pathways.