Publication:

A study to determine risk factors for renal scarring as detected by dimercaptosuccinic acid scan in children with urinary tract infection

Background The aim of the study was to determine the risk factors for renal scarring detected by DMSA (dimercaptosuccinic acid) scan in children with culture-proven urinary tract infection (UTI).

Methods A hospital based observational case-control study was conducted from 2018 June to 2020 June in children aged between 1 month to 5 years who underwent a DMSA scan following culture-proven UTI (N=72). Of the children fulfilling the criteria, 43 had renal scarring in the DMSA scan as a case group and the remaining 29 children who had no renal scarring were taken as a control group.

Results Of the total 72 cases with culture-positive UTI, 59% of patients had renal scarring and the rest and 40% were scar negative. There was no significant difference in the renal scarring observed with respect to age in the two groups. There was significant (p 0.05). In DMSA positive group, circumcision was not a significant risk factor for scarring.

Conclusions VUR and recurrent UTI were significant risk factors for renal scarring in children with culture-proven UTI as detected by DMSA scan. The other risk factors like age, sex, fever, leucocytosis and circumcision were not found to be significant.