Urinalysis and Body Fluids 6th Edition by Majorie DiLorenzo, Susan Strasinger

Exercise 62

The shape of the RTE cell associated with renal tubular epithelial casts is primarily:

A. Elongated

B. Cuboidal

C. Round

D. Columnar

Step 1 of 2

Renal tubular epithelial (RTE) casts:

Attachment of RTE cell to casts forms RTE casts.

• RTE cell casts indicates advanced destruction of tubules of kidney.

• They are related with drug induced toxicity, heavy metal, viral infection and allograft rejection.

• Epithelial cell cast associates with WBC casts during pyelonephritis.

• Casts matrix in RTE cell casts are smaller, oval and round cells which is difficult to discriminate from WBC.

Casts matrix:

• It is the composition of casts which is primarily made of uromodulin protein.

Therefore, primary shape of RTE cell linked with RTE casts is “round”. Hence, the correct answer is option .