From red to white urine: a patient's nightmare with a rather benign outcome

doi:10.1186/1471-2369-13-7

BMC Nephrol. 2012; 13: 7.

Published online 2012 February 1. doi: 10.1186/1471-2369-13-7

PMCID: PMC3297526

From red to white urine: a patient's nightmare with a rather benign outcome

Benjamin Knier,¹ Beatrix Büschges-Seraphin,² Karl F Hilgers,¹ Kerstin U Amann,³ Michael Uder,⁴ Kai-Uwe Eckardt,¹ and Johannes Jacobi¹

¹Department of Nephrology & Hypertension, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Ulmenweg 18, 91054 Erlangen, Germany

²KfH Dialysezentrum Fürth, Jakob-Henle-Haus, Robert-Koch str. 41, 90766 Fürth, Germany

³Department of Pathology, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Krankenhausstr. 12, 91054 Erlangen, Germany

⁴Department of Radiology, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Maximiliansplatz 1, 91054 Erlangen, Germany

Corresponding author.

Benjamin Knier: acodado/at/gmx.net; Beatrix Büschges-Seraphin: beatrix.bueschges-seraphin/at/web.de; Karl F Hilgers: karl.hilgers/at/uk-erlangen.de; Kerstin U Amann: kerstin.amann/at/uk-erlangen.de; Michael Uder: michael.uder/at/uk-erlangen.de; Kai-Uwe Eckardt: kai-uwe.eckardt/at/uk-erlangen.de; Johannes Jacobi: johannes.jacobi/at/uk-erlangen.de

Received July 19, 2011; Accepted February 1, 2012.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Background

Chyluria is a medical condition with presence of chyle in the urine. The disease is most prevalent in endemic regions of Africa and the Indian subcontinent where it is mostly caused by parasitic infections, particularly lymphatic filariasis due to wucheria bancrofti. Non-parasitic chyluria, however, is a very rare finding.

Case Presentation

We report the case of a 48 year old woman who developed a lymphorenal fistula with chyluria following ureterrenoscopy with biopsies taken for urological work-up of persistent macrohematuria. Renal biopsy confirmed the diagnosis of benign familial hematuria due to thin basement nephropathy, a condition frequently associated with episodes of macrohematuria.

Conclusions

This case highlights a rare case of non-parasitic chyluria as a complication of urological work-up for macrohematuria of benign nature.

Keywords: chyluria, thin basement membrane nephropathy

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