Distal renal tubular acidosis in infancy: a bicarbonate wasting state.

Three unrelated infants with apparently distal RTA were investigated. Growth retardation, polyuria, nephrocalcinosis, inappropriately high urinary pH, and marked dependence of bicarbonate excretion on urinary flow were characteristic of the distal or classic form of RTA, but the urinary loss of bicarbonate at normal serum values exceeded that usually found in children or adults with this disorder. Renal tubular function was studied during hypotonic saline diuresis in the three patients and in seven healthy control infants of similar age. Fractional delivery of sodium to the distal nephron was significantly higher in the patients than in control subjects. Sodium transport at the diluting segment was not impaired. The results support the assumption that the bicarbonate wasting was the consequence of an increased delivery of this substance to an already impaired distal nephron and thus further inhibited the distal mechanisms of net acid excretion.