To the Editor: Dr. Saad's photomicrographs of dysmorphic urinaryerythrocytes (Images in Clinical Medicine, May 30 issue),1 althoughbeautiful, are dangerously misleading. Dysmorphic cells do notrepresent glomerular bleeding, as the legend implies. They canbe produced as a result of kidney biopsies2 and are thereforenot necessarily of glomerular origin. Renal tumors can alsobe expected to produce dysmorphic hematuria. By assuming thata finding of dysmorphic red cells rules out all causes of hematuriaother than glomerulonephritis, one could miss a renal tumor.
Akos Z. Györy, M.D., D.Sc. Sydney University Sydney, NSW2006, Australia
References
Saad TF. Dysmorphic urinary erythrocytes. N Engl J Med 1996;334:1440-1440. [Free Full Text]
Pollock C, Pei-Ling L, Györy AZ, et al. Dysmorphism of urinary red blood cells -- value in diagnosis. Kidney Int 1989;36:1045-1049. [Medline]