[Procedure on finding microhematuria in medical practice].

Of 2000 unselected patients consecutively examined during the first 3 months of 1972 at the Outpatient Clinic for Internal Medicine, University of Basel, 102 (5.1%) were found to have pathologic erythrocyturia on routine urinalysis. In 63 of these patients the first examination did not produce a precise diagnosis such as to explain the microhematuria symptom. 30 of the 63 patients were not rechecked. 24 of the 33 rechecked patients with microhematuria again showed a pathologic erythrocyte count in urinalysis. Further workup for hematuria in 18 of these patients produced a definite diagnosis in 11 but not in the other 7 i.e. the final diagnosis in the latter was (microhematuria of undetermined origin). Workup for microhematuria is of great importance in clinical practice, and for this reason a specific procedure for workup of ambulatory patients is proposed.