CAN DIPSTICK SCREENING FOR HEMATURIA IDENTIFY INDIVIDUALS WITH STRUCTURAL RENAL ABNORMALITIES - A SONOGRAPHIC EVALUATION

The present study presents data from a population study of 659 randoml y selected adult volunteers. All participants had a renal sonographic examination and at the same time had their urine tested for hematuria by dipstick. Thirty participants (5%) had dipstick hematuria. Similar rates of abnormal renal findings were obtained in the hematuria-positi ve and hematuria-negative groups, 10% and 8%, respectively. Our result s suggest that dipstick investigation for hematuria in mass-screening programs is not effective for the detection of structural renal abnorm alities.