@Article{, title={Comparative Study of Dipstick, Urine Microscopy and Urine Culture in the Diagnosis of Urinary Tract Infection in Children Under Five Years}, author={May Mohamed Ali}, journal={Karbala Journal of Medicine مجلة كربلاء الطبية}, volume={3 no.1}, number={6}, pages={822-828}, year={2010}, abstract={background: Urinary tract infection is a common source of bacterial infectionin children under five years old; urinalysis is one of the important and usefulurological tests for diagnosis of infection, microscopic examination of urineand the dipstick urinalyses (leukocytes esterase test, nitrite test) are common testsused for detecting bacteriurea and pyuria.Objective: Comparison of the rapid tests: dipstick (leukocytes esterase test, nitritetest), microscopic examination, and urine culture in detecting urinary tract infection inchildren under five years old.Method: The study conducted on 246 patients less than 5 years old admitted withclinical suspicion of urinary tract infection in Kerbala pediatric teaching hospital inthe period from July to December 2008. All urine samples were collected thensubmitted for routine urinalysis and bacterial culture, dipstick and microscopy weredone.Results: Urinary tract infection was identified in117 patients, The sensitivity ofleukocytes esterase test was 83.7% higher than nitrite test 39.3%while specificitywas70% which is lower than nitrite test 87.6%, the positive predictive value andnegative predictive value for nitrite test were 74%, 61% respectively while forleukocytes esterase test record 76.6%, 82% respectively.The positive predictive value and negative predictive value for pyuria( 96.2%, 99.1%)were higher than that recorded in both nitrite test and leukocytes esterase.Conclusion: 1-The dipstick tests (nitrite and leukocyte esterase) have high positivepredictive value for presence of urinary tract infection.2- The high negative predictive value of these tests doesn't exclude urinary tractinfection.3-Acombination of microscopic examination and dipstick tests improve the sensitivityof detecting urinary tract infections.

} }