The hematurias are a frequent finding in urinary routine exams and do not necessarily indicate illness. The presence of hematuria associated with other urinary disturbances, especially proteinuria, indicates urinary tract pathology and should be investigated. In the literature, several studies point out the importance of urinary sedimentoscopy, specially the red cells morphology, to determine the source of bleeding: glomerular or non-glomerular. In this article, the authors review the dysmorphic erythrocyte, emphasizing on the meaning, the physiopathology, the methods, the cut-of values, and the limitations according to the literature. The comparisons with other markers of glomerular bleeding were also discussed. At the end, the authors exposed how the literature analyses and applies the dysmorphic erythrocyte results to guide the complementary research for investigation the source of urinary bleeding.
Dysmorphic erythrocyte; Red cells morphology; Glomerular hematuria; Glomerular bleeding; Urinalysis; Review article
