DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2014.v02i06.050

Pages: 3087-3091

Haematuria is a known symptom of sickle cell anaemia (SCA) and most renal diseases including sickle cell nephropathy. Dipstick urinalysis can detect haematuria buturine sediment microscopy confirms haematuria. The objective of this study is to correlate between dipstick urinalysis and urinary sediment microscopy in detecting haematuria in children with SCA. Urine samples were collected from 272 children (aged 6 months to 15 years) with SCA, both in steady state and in crisis. The urine samples were analysed using dipstick urinalysis and urinary sediment microscopy. Presence of ≥1+ blood in the urine on dipstick urinalysis or of ≥2+ red blood cells on urine sediment microscopy is considered significant haematuria.The mean age of the 272 children with SCA was 6.4 ±3.9 years. There were 156 (57.4%) males and 116 (42.6%) females (male to female ratio of 1.3: 1). There were 185 (68.0%)in steady state and 87 (32.0%) in SCA crisis. The prevalence of haematuriaon dipstick urinalysis was 4.4%while that on urine sediment microscopy was 8.8%. Haematuria was not associated with age, gender and social class. Haematuria on dipstick urinalysis did not significantly differ from haematuria on urine sediment microscopy. There was a direct positive correlation for haematuria found on dipstick urinalyses and at urine sediment microscopy among children with SCA both in crisis and in steady state. Dipstick urinalysis is therefore a preferred screening tool for detecting haematuria in children with SCA because it is cheap and easy to carry out.