The clinical manifestations of intermittent hydronephrosis and their relationship with renal function in pediatric...

Most patients with intermittent hydronephrosis have preserved differential renal function (DRF), while others already have impaired DRF at diagnosis. We summarized the clinical manifestations of intermittent hydronephrosis to elucidate what may be related to DRF loss.

We retrospectively reviewed patients presenting to our department with unilateral Dietl's Crisis between January 2014 and December 2017. Clinical characteristics were collected, including age of first onset, time of onset, duration of the longest single episodes and whether the patient had prenatally detected hydronephrosis. Ultrasonographic (US) parameters included anteroposterior diameter (APD) during the symptomatic and asymptomatic period. Dynamic renograms (DR) were reviewed to obtain preoperative DRF.

A total of 150 patients met the selective criteria. Of the 128 patients whose mother had regular obstetric ultrasounds during pregnancy, 50 (39.06%) had prenatally detected pelvic dilation. The mean age of the first attack was earlier in the prenatally detected hydronephrosis group than in the postnatally detected group (4.58 vs 5.87, p = 0.002). The mean preoperative DRF was 41.03% in all of the patients. The patients whose DRFs were below 40% had longer durations of single attacks than those over 40%. The former group also had larger APD during the symptomatic periods than the latter group. The risk of DRF < 40% was higher in the patients whose APD at attack was greater than 35 mm (OR=5.111, χ²=12.899, p < 0.001). The attack times, waiting time before the surgery and age of the first onset had no association with preoperative DRF.

Our study first found that in patients with Dietl's Crisis, the APD during the symptomatic periods and the longest duration of the attack were associated with DRF loss. But the retrospective nature of our study limited us to understand the relationship between DRF and total duration of all attacks.

This study revealed that children with prenatal hydronephrosis could develop Dietl's Crisis at early ages. A longer duration of attack and larger APD during the attack were associated with impaired DRF.