Positive urine nitrite test: an accurate predictor of absence of pure enterococcal bacteriuria.
BACKGROUND
The aim of this study was to determine the potential ability of the urine nitrite test (NT) to predict the class of organism causing urinary tract infection.


METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed the records of all adult patients with a positive urine culture over a 6-month period. The infecting microorganisms and the urine NT results were recorded.


RESULTS
A total of 729 positive cultures met inclusion criteria. Twenty-one (11%) of the 190 gram-positive organisms and 199 (46%) of the 429 gram-negative organisms yielded a positive NT. Only 5.3% of samples with pure growth of enterococcus yielded a positive NT. The predictive value that a sample yielding a positive NT would show pure growth of enterococcus was low at 2.3%.


CONCLUSIONS
A positive NT is highly predictive of the absence of pure enterococcal bacteriuria.
Department of Medicine, Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania State University, 17033, USA.
J
J
Holloway
N
N
Joshi
T
T
O'Bryan
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001437:Bacteriuria / Q000652:urine*; D002648:Child; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D016983:Enterococcus; D004927:Escherichia coli Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000652:urine; D016905:Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000652:urine; D016908:Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000652:urine; D006801:Humans; D009573:Nitrites / Q000652:urine*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014552:Urinary Tract Infections / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000652:urine
D009573:Nitrites