TY - JOUR
T1 - Evaluation of Hematuria in a Large Public Health Care System
AU - Ghandour, Rashed
AU - Freifeld, Yuval
AU - Singla, Nirmish
AU - Lotan, Yair
PY - 2019/1/1
Y1 - 2019/1/1
N2 - Background: Hematuria is the most common presenting symptom in bladder cancer, but many patients are not adequately evaluated. Objectives: To evaluate the type and frequency of hematuria evaluation in a large public health care system. Patients and Methods: Electronic medical records of adult patients with urinalysis positive for hematuria (≥3 RBCs/HPF) from January 2015 to April 2018 in an outpatient setting were reviewed. Logistic regression was performed to determine factors associated with urology referral and complete evaluation. Results: 11,422 patients met the inclusion criteria; the majority were females (72%) and white race (60%). There were an additional 3,221 patient's with initial diagnosis of UTI. Median age was 49.0 years. Testing included repeat urinalysis (50%), imaging (26%), urology referral (11.4%), cystoscopy (4.4%) and complete evaluation defined as cystoscopy and US/CT/MRI (4%). In the multivariable analysis, factors independently associated with higher referral to urology were age >35, male gender, hypertension, RBCs ≥20. African American race was associated with less referral to urology. Smoking was a significant variable on univariable analysis only. 37 patients (0.25%) were diagnosed with urological malignancies, with bladder cancer in 33, 12 of whom are missed by excluding UTI patients. Conclusions: In the outpatient setting of a public health care system, the vast majority of patients with hematuria are not referred and evaluated properly across all age categories and regardless of smoking status. This might result in missed cancer diagnoses and requires quality improvement measures.
AB - Background: Hematuria is the most common presenting symptom in bladder cancer, but many patients are not adequately evaluated. Objectives: To evaluate the type and frequency of hematuria evaluation in a large public health care system. Patients and Methods: Electronic medical records of adult patients with urinalysis positive for hematuria (≥3 RBCs/HPF) from January 2015 to April 2018 in an outpatient setting were reviewed. Logistic regression was performed to determine factors associated with urology referral and complete evaluation. Results: 11,422 patients met the inclusion criteria; the majority were females (72%) and white race (60%). There were an additional 3,221 patient's with initial diagnosis of UTI. Median age was 49.0 years. Testing included repeat urinalysis (50%), imaging (26%), urology referral (11.4%), cystoscopy (4.4%) and complete evaluation defined as cystoscopy and US/CT/MRI (4%). In the multivariable analysis, factors independently associated with higher referral to urology were age >35, male gender, hypertension, RBCs ≥20. African American race was associated with less referral to urology. Smoking was a significant variable on univariable analysis only. 37 patients (0.25%) were diagnosed with urological malignancies, with bladder cancer in 33, 12 of whom are missed by excluding UTI patients. Conclusions: In the outpatient setting of a public health care system, the vast majority of patients with hematuria are not referred and evaluated properly across all age categories and regardless of smoking status. This might result in missed cancer diagnoses and requires quality improvement measures.
KW - Hematuria
KW - evaluation
KW - public health care system
KW - referral
KW - socioeconomic status
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U2 - 10.3233/BLC-190221
DO - 10.3233/BLC-190221
M3 - Article
C2 - 31930164
AN - SCOPUS:85071243116
VL - 5
SP - 119
EP - 129
JO - Bladder Cancer
JF - Bladder Cancer
SN - 2352-3727
IS - 2
ER -