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Comparison of Urine Dipstick, Microscopy, and Culture for the Detection of Bacteriuria in Children

Department of Laboratories, St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, 2600 North Lawrence Street, Philadelphia, PA 19133

Joseph M. Campos, PhD

Department of Laboratory Medicine, Children's National Medical Center, Washington, D.C. and the Departments of Pediatrics and Pathology, George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, D.C.

The authors compared dipstick tests for leukocyte esterase and nitrite and microscopic examination of urinary sediment with urine culture to assess whether the former tests could reliably rule out bacteriuria in specimens from children.

The authors studied urine specimens from 1010 infants and children younger than age 18. Compared with culture at 10⁵ colony forming units (cfu)/ml, the sensitivities of leukocyte esterase, nitrite, and microscopic examination of white blood cells (5 wbc/hpf) or bacteria (in at least moderate numbers) were 76 percent, 29 percent, 82 percent, and 80 percent, respectively. The specificities of the same tests were 81 percent, 99 percent, 81 percent, and 83 percent, respectively. Compared with culture at 10⁴ cfu/ml, the sensitivities of the tests were 64 percent, 21 percent, 64 percent, and 59 percent; the specificities were 82 percent, 99 percent, 81 percent, and 83 percent, respectively. The negative predictive values of leukocyte esterase and microscopic examinations of urinary sediment for white blood cells and bacteria were all 95 percent (10⁴ cfu/ml) or 98 percent (10⁵ cfu/ml).

The authors conclude that the leukocyte esterase test is as accurate as sediment microscopy in identifying urine specimens from infants and children harboring <10 ⁴ or <10⁵ cfu/ml.

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