Study of Urinary Protein and Leucocytes in Normotensive and Hypertensive Children and Adults

Abstract

BACKGROUND Proteinuria is a known indicator of early stages of hypertensive nephropathy in adults. However, the role of proteinuria in diagnosis of hypertensive target organ damage in hypertensive children is not well documented. The purpose of this study is to investigate the prevalence of proteinuria and pyuria in children and adults with hypertension, and compare it with the prevalence in normotensive population in both children and adults. MATERIALS AND METHODS Urine from 200 hypertensive and 200 normotensive individuals was collected. Out of 200 individuals in each group, 100 were below 18 years of age, and 100 were above 18 years of age. The urine samples were tested by strip test with multiple parameters for protein and leucocytes and the latter was confirmed by microscopic examination. RESULTS In our study, 17% of the hypertensive subjects in the younger age group (<18 years of age) were diagnosed with proteinuria in contrast to only 2% of the normotensive subjects in the same age group. Sixty-two percent of the hypertensive adults were diagnosed to have proteinuria in comparison with only 4% of normotensive adults who had a positive test for protein in their urine. CONCLUSION Chronic pyelonephritis is regarded as an important secondary cause of paediatric hypertension. But the prevalence of pyuria was not found to be remarkably higher in hypertensive children compared to the normotensive children. Our findings suggest that paediatric hypertension can also be associated with proteinuria which can be used as a marker for target organ injury in children.