He addis count in the prognosis of acute nephritis in childhood

Abstract

A description of the Addis count of the urinary sediment is given. The normal limits for casts, red cells, and white cells in the twelve-hour specimen of urine are defined. The red cell Addis count is thought to give as much information as the cast or white cell count in children. In the twelve-hour specimen a total excretion of 600,000 red cellt is given as the upper limit of normal. Using the routine renal function tests as well as the Addis count, 218 cases of acute haemorrhagic nephritis were examnined; 174 were investigated after the acute attack had subsided, and forty-four were followed throughout the course of the illness. Forty-one of the 218 cases were found to be in a latent stage, and in twenty-five of the forty-one the raised Addis count was the only sign of a persisting renal lesion. In each of the forty-four cases, which were under observation from the onset of illness, the Addis count was raised on dismissal from hospital, and in thirty-eight was the only indication of renal damage at that time. The Addis count (red cell) returned to normal within an average of sixteen weeks in thirty-nine cases, but in five has remained above the-600,000 level. It is suggested that the Addis red cell count gives a better indication of the prognosis in acute haemorrhagic nephritis than any other test of renal function and that it should be more frequently employed in assessing the prognosis in individual cases.