Renal function in Inuit survivors of epidemic hemolytic-uremic syndrome

We undertook a case-control study to evaluate the renal health of survivors of hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS) from the 1991 Arctic epidemic of Escherichia coli O157:H7 gastroenteritis 4 years after the epidemic. Eighteen children who developed HUS during the 1991 epidemic and 18 age- and sex-matched controls from the same community who had uncomplicated gastroenteritis were compared in 1995 for height, weight, blood pressure, urinalysis, and glomerular filtration rate (GFR), measured using continuous subcutaneous infusion of non-radioactive iothalamate. HUS survivors did not differ from controls in height, weight, systolic (HUS 118 mmHg, control 117 mmHg) or diastolic (HUS 64 mmHg, control 62 mmHg) blood pressures. Hematuria was detected more frequently in HUS survivors (11/18 vs. 4/18, P<0.05), but no child had proteinuria. Mean GFR did not differ between the two groups (HUS 159 ml/min per 1.73 m2, control 147 ml/min per 1.73 m2). Survivors of post-enteritic HUS from the 1991 Arctic E. coli 0157:H7 outbreak have excellent renal function 4 years after the epidemic.