Serum vitamin A and beta-carotene concentrations and renal scarring in urinary tract infections.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the role of vitamin A on renal scarring in recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs). DESIGN Twenty three children with UTIs and renal scarring (mean (SD) age 7.3 (3.9) years) and 91 children without renal scarring (6.4 (3.4) years) were studied. All the children had serum vitamin A and beta-carotene measurements and nutritional evaluation. Renal scarring was assessed by technetium-99m dimercaptosuccinic acid (99mTc DMSA) scanning. Nutritional status of all the patients was within normal limits and not different between the groups. RESULTS Mean (SD) serum vitamin A and beta-carotene concentrations were not significantly different between the patients with and without renal scarring (vitamin A 53.2 (22.6)/46.8 (17.0) micrograms/dl and beta-carotene 232.3 (201.3)/272.4 (86.0) micrograms/dl respectively). However, when the patients with renal scarring and with greater than 10% difference among the DMSA uptakes of their kidneys (11 cases) were evaluated, a significant negative correlation was determined between the serum vitamin A concentrations and the magnitude of the difference in uptakes of each kidney. The same relation was not true for serum beta-carotene concentrations. CONCLUSION This study demonstrated a relation between serum vitamin A concentrations and magnitude of hypoactivity in 99mTc DMSA scanning in kidneys with advanced scarring.