Diagnostic Performance of a Saliva Urea Nitrogen Dipstick to Detect Kidney Disease in Malawi.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Kidney disease (KD), including acute kidney injury, is common, severe and leads to significant mortality in the developing world. However, simple tools to facilitate diagnosis and guide treatment are lacking. We studied the diagnostic performance of saliva urea nitrogen (SUN) measured by dipstick to diagnose KD in a low-resource setting.

Methods

Medical admissions to a tertiary hospital in Malawi had serum creatinine tested at presentation; SUN was measured using a dipstick. Patients with serum creatinine above normal range underwent serial measurements of SUN and blood urea nitrogen for up to 7 days. Hospital outcome was recorded in all patients.

Results

A total of 742 patients were included (age 41 ± 17·3 years, 56.1% male); 146 (19.7%) had KD, includin

SUBMITTER: Evans R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5678625 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature