Blog

A new interesting article has been published in Pediatr Nephrol. 2019 Jul;34(7):1283-1288. doi: 10.1007/s00467-019-04226-6. Epub 2019 Mar 20. and titled:

Using urine nitrite sticks to test for urinary tract infection in children aged < 2 years: a meta-analysis.

Authors of this article are:

Coulthard MG.

A summary of the article is shown below:

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to determine whether nitrite sticks are as sensitive at detecting urinary tract infection (UTI) in children <2 years as they are in older children.METHODS: I reanalysed data on using nitrite sticks to detect UTIs for children aged either < 2 or 2-18 years. For sensitivity, evidence of a UTI was defined as level 1 when a single uropathogen grew ≥ 105 colony forming units/ml (cfu/ml) in two urine samples, level 2 when just one sample was cultured or a threshold of < 105 cfu/ml was used, and level 3 if mixed growths or Staphylococcus albus was considered to be positive. For specificity, children were defined as uninfected if they had 1 sterile urine culture. I also reanalysed our previously published data by age.RESULTS: The sensitivity was lower for children aged < 2 years (11 studies, 1321 subjects) than for older children (9 studies, 295 subjects), whether the level-1 values or all the studies were analysed (Fisher's exact test, p < 0.0001 for both). The level-1 sensitivities were 0.23 in the infants and 0.81 among older children (odds ratio = 0.07, 95% confidence interval 0.03-0.18). The specificity was very high in infants (10 studies, 1783 cases) and older children (7 studies, 5952 cases), at 0.990 and 0.996.CONCLUSIONS: Nitrite sticks only have a 23% sensitivity in children aged < 2 years, so cannot reliably rule out UTIs. A positive nitrite stick test is about 99% likely to indicate a UTI in children of any age.
Check out the article’s website on Pubmed for more information:

[link-preview url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30895368 forceshot=true]

This article is a good source of information and a good way to become familiar with topics such as: Bacteria;Child;Culture;Diagnosis;Nitrite;Stick testing;Urinary tract infection;Urine.

New Chemicals from MOLECULAR DEPOT

New Proteins from MOLECULAR DEPOT


New Antibodies from MOLECULAR DEPOT


New Research Kits from MOLECULAR DEPOT