Prevalence of proteinuria in school children (aged 12-14 years) in Kashmir valley, India, using dipstick method.

Screening for kidney diseases by urinalysis in school children is being conducted in many parts of the world with inexpensive tools such as urinary dipsticks. We conducted this study to know the prevalence of asymptomatic proteinuria in school children (age group 12-14 years) in Kashmir valley as no previous study is available. After applying exclusion criteria, 2068 children were screened for proteinuria by dipstick method. Another test was performed in the children with abnormal findings in the first sample with dipstick of the same brand, after a period of one-month. These children were also assessed by timed urine collection (i.e., 24 h urinary protein). In the first dipstick test, the prevalence of proteinuria in the studied population was 6.2% which persisted in 2.17% after second dipstick examination. No child in the studied group was found to have glycosuria. In our study, no statistically significant association was found between proteinuria and gender, body mass index, or hypertension. In our study, the prevalence of persistent proteinuria in school children (age group 12-14 years) in Kashmir valley was almost similar to the studies conducted in different parts of the world.

Profile of acute kidney injury after open heart surgeries in a tertiary care hospital.

Our objective is to determine the incidence, etiology, risk factors and outcome of acute kidney injury (AKI) after open heart surgery. A prospective study was conducted on 62 patients who underwent open heart surgery and were followed-up for the development of AKI and to determine its incidence, etiology and outcome. Post-operative AKI was considered when the post-operative serum creatinine was >1.5 mg/dL or there was doubling of serum creatinine above the baseline (pre-operative) with a prior normal renal function. The incidence of AKI in the post-operative period in our study was 17.7%. The common etiological factors for AKI in our study were sepsis, hypotension, prolonged need for ventilator and inotropic support and drugs given in the post-operative period. The important risk factors for the development of AKI in the post-operative period were hypertension, diabetes mellitus, gout, prolonged total bypass time and prolonged aortic cross-clamp time. The overall mortality in our study subjects was 11.3% (seven of 62 died) and the mortality in the patients who developed post-operative AKI was 71.4%.