Screening proteinuria and hematuria in Malaysian children

Screening for proteinuria and hematuria is important in the prevention of chronic renal disease. In Malaysia to date no such attempt has been made to establish the prevalence of proteinuria and hematuria. A total of 45,149 primary school children from three districts in Kelantan were screened for proteinuria and hematuria. They were 23,289 boys and 21,860 girls. The prevalence of abnormal urinary sediments after third screening was 0.17% ie 0.07% were in boys and 0.10% were in girls. The commonest abnormality was proteinuria (0.12%), followed by hematuria (0.03%) and combination of proteinuria and hematuria (0.02%). Hematuria was more commonly seen in girls compared to boys while proteinuria was seen in almost equal proportion in boys and girls. Despite screening large number of children the prevalence of asymptomatic proteinuria and hematuria was far lower than in an earlier reported study. Furthermore the majority had mild abnormalities.