HYPERCALCIURIA AND HEMATURIA IN JUVENILE RHEUMATOID-ARTHRITIS

Objective. To investigate the frequency of hypercalciuria and the rela tionship between hypercalciuria and hematuria in patients with juvenil e rheumatoid arthritis (JRA). Methods. Twenty-eight children with JRA were studied, as well as 10 patients with acute arthritis unrelated to JRA and 14 healthy children as control groups. Cases with urinary cal cium excretion (UCE) >4 mg/kg/day were considered hypercalciuric. Urin alysis was performed for detecting hematuria in all cases. Results. UC E was 4.19 +/- 2.9 mg/kg/day in patients with JRA, 1.94 +/- 1.57 mg/kg /day in children with acute arthritis, and 2.0 +/- 1.45 mg/kg/day in h ealthy children. UCE was significantly higher in JRA compared with the other study groups. Of the 28 patients with JRA, 13 (46.4 %) had hype rcalciuria and 6 (21.4 %) had hematuria. UCE was significantly higher in hematuric patients with JRA than in those with no hematuria (p<0.05 ). UCE in patients with JRA without hematuria was also higher than the UCE values detected in the disease and healthy control groups (p<0.05 ). Conclusion. Hypercalciuria is a frequent finding in patients with J RA [13/28 (46.4%)] and should be considered during the investigation o f hematuria in patients with JRA.