title: Urine test strips: reliability of semi-quantitative findings under tropical conditions.
abstract: Semi-quantitative urinalysis with urine reagent strips (URS) for erythrocyturia (EU), leucocyturia (LU) and proteinuria (PU) was performed in Congolese and Sudanese school children with Schistosoma haematobium and/or S. mansoni infection. Quantitative urinalysis was performed on the same specimen using microscopy and a Neubauer counting chamber for EU and LU and the Coomassie blue dye-binding assay for PU. Microscopically detectable EU of more than 10 cells/microliters was found in 63% of all samples and LU of more than 20 cells/microliters was found in 60% of all samples. With the Coomassie blue method, PU of more than 150 mg/l was detected in 51% of all samples. URS gave positive results of grade 1-3 for EU in 69% of all samples, for LU in 63% of all samples and for PU in 66% of all samples. The sensitivity and specificity of URS compared with standard reference methods were as follow: EU 95% and 75%, LU 81% and 81% and PU 90% and 56%. When the results of all three test were combined, URS differentiated abnormal from normal urine specimens with a sensitivity of 94% and a specificity of 70%. Median quantitative results showed a good correlation with semiquantitative URS readings for all parameters, but there was a wide range of URS scores. We concluded that URS sensitivity detect urinary abnormalities and thus may be used as a general screening method under field conditions when more specific methods cannot be performed.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
authors.affiliation: Division of Tropical Paediatrics, University of Heidelberg, Federal Republic of Germany.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kaiser
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bergel
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Doehring-Schwerdtfeger
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Feldmeier
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Ehrich
mesh_terms: D003223:Congo; D006417:Hematuria / Q000652:urine*; D006801:Humans; D007964:Leukocytosis / Q000652:urine; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011507:Proteinuria / Q000652:urine*; D011934:Reagent Strips; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012553:Schistosomiasis haematobia / Q000652:urine; D012555:Schistosomiasis mansoni / Q000652:urine; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013397:Sudan; D014329:Tropical Climate; D016482:Urinalysis
chemical_list: D011934:Reagent Strips