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Brief Description:

Researchers are seeking participants for a study of antibiotic use in children with a urinary tract disorder.

Transcript:

Akinso: Researchers are seeking participants for a study of antibiotic use in children with a urinary tract disorder.

Moxey-Mims:What we’re looking for is 600 kids to enroll.

Akinso: Dr. Marva Moxey-Mims is the Director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases’ Pediatric Nephrology Program.

Moxey-Mims: They need to be between the ages of 2 months and 72 months or 6 years is what we are looking for. They can’t have any other abnormalities. They’re identified the way we tend to standardly indentify these kids which is they had one or two urinary tract infections, and then if they have reflux then they maybe eligible to enter the study.

Akinso: The NIDDK is conducting a study, known as RIVUR, to learn if children with a urinary tract disorder known as vesicoureteral reflux should be treated with antibiotics for an extended period of time. Dr. Moxey-Mims explains the purpose of the study.

Moxey-Mims: What were trying to figure out with the RIVUR study is look at a group of kids. Give half of them the regular treatment that we’ve been doing for all these years—prophylactic antibiotics. Give the other half placebo, compare them and see does it really make a difference.

Akinso: Vesicoureteral reflux or VUR is the most common functional abnormality of the urinary tract in children. Dr. Moxey-Mims defines VUR.

Moxey-Mims: What VUR stands for is vesicoureteral refux and what that means is urine that goes from the bladder back up the ureter — what should happen under normal circumstances. Urine is made in the kidney and then its flows down a tube that’s called the ureter into the bladder. And under normal circumstances that should just be a one way trip. Urine is not supposed to be able to back up and go back up toward the kidney.

Akinso: VUR is found in 30 percent to 50 percent of children with urinary tract infections and is thought to increase the risk of kidney damage when children have recurring urinary tract infections. Dr. Moxey-Mims says the study examines treatment options.

Moxey-Mims: Does it really make a difference and are we maybe doing more harm than good if we give the kids antibiotics and we don’t know the answer to that question.

Akinso: Dr. Moxey-Mims is optimistic that the study could help researchers understand how to provide the best care for tens of thousands of children diagnosed every year with this condition. For more information on the study, visit, www.clinicaltrials.gov. This is Wally Akinso at the National Institutes of Health Bethesda, Maryland.