Urine dipstick screen test and microscopic examination for detection of urinary tract infection in children

Objective: To compare the reliability of microscopic examination and urine dipstick evaluation with the urine culture in diagnosing urinary tract infection(UTI) in children.Methods: Fresh midstream clean-catch urine samples were collected in accordiance with standard guideline,10 μl of the urine specimen was used for bacteria culture(colony counts of ≥ 10⁵ CFU/ml),the other portion was used for test with reagent strip for presence of LE,NIT and microscopic examination.Results: One hundred and nine samples were tested in all,23 patients(21.1%) had bacteria cultures of 100 000 or more colony-forming units of a uropathogen per milliliter.The sensitivities of the microscopic examination and dipstick test in identifying patients with positive cultures were 73.9% and 82.6%,and the specificities were 95.3% and 88.4%,respectively.Four patients(17.4%) had negative dipstick screening tests but positive urine cultures,and other four patients had positive microscopic examination but negative urine cultures.The positive predict value(PPV) of urine microscopic examination and dipstick evaluation was 81.0% and 65.5% respectively.Conclusions: Urine reagent strips tests and microscopic examination are not sufficiently sensitive in the detection of UTI;therefore,bacteria culture must be adopted.