Causes of elevated blood urea in 100 hospital cases.

In this prospective study we examined 100 consecutive in-patients found to have a blood urea concentration greater than 13.3 mmol/l (80 mg/dl) or a serum creatinine concentration greater than 176 μmol/l (2 mg/dl).Pre-renal causes were responsible in 32 of these patients and there was a 40% mortality rate in this subgroup of patients after one month follow up.In 14 cases inappropriate administration of diuretics was a major cause of blood urea elevation.