title: Do English NHS Microbiology laboratories offer adequate services for the diagnosis of UTI in children? Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) Audit of Standard Operational Procedures.
abstract: The National Institute of Care Excellence (NICE) 2007 guidance CG54, on urinary tract infection (UTI) in children, states that clinicians should use urgent microscopy and culture as the preferred method for diagnosing UTI in the hospital setting for severe illness in children under 3 years old and from the GP setting in children under 3 years old with intermediate risk of severe illness. NICE also recommends that all 'infants and children with atypical UTI (including non-Escherichia coli infections) should have renal imaging after a first infection'. We surveyed all microbiology laboratories in England with Clinical Pathology Accreditation to determine standard operating procedures (SOPs) for urgent microscopy, culture and reporting of children's urine and to ascertain whether the SOPs facilitate compliance with NICE guidance. We undertook a computer search in six microbiology laboratories in south-west England to determine urine submissions and urine reports in children under 3 years. Seventy-three per cent of laboratories (110/150) participated. Enterobacteriaceae that were not E. coli were reported only as coliforms (rather than non-E. coli coliforms) by 61% (67/110) of laboratories. Eighty-eight per cent of laboratories (97/110) provided urgent microscopy for hospital and 54% for general practice (GP) paediatric urines; 61% of laboratories (confidence interval 52-70%) cultured 1 μl volume of urine, which equates to one colony if the bacterial load is 106 c.f.u. l(-1). Only 22% (24/110) of laboratories reported non-E. coli coliforms and provided urgent microscopy for both hospital and GP childhood urines; only three laboratories also cultured a 5 μl volume of urine. Only one of six laboratories in our submission audit had a significant increase in urine submissions and urines reported from children less than 3 years old between the predicted pre-2007 level in the absence of guidance and the 2008 level following publication of the NICE guidance. Less than a quarter of laboratories were providing a service that would allow clinicians to fully comply with the first line recommendations in the 2007 NICE UTI in children guidance. Laboratory urine submission report figures suggest that the guidance has not led to an increase in diagnosis of UTI in children under 3 years old.
authors: Public Health England Primary Care Unit, Microbiology Department, Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, Great Western Road, Gloucester GL1 3NN, UK.
authors: Cliodna A M
authors: CAM
authors: McNulty
authors: Public Health England, Centre for Infectious Disease Surveillance and Control, Colindale, London, UK.
authors: Neville Q
authors: NQ
authors: Verlander
authors: Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Microbiology Department, Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, Great Western Road, Gloucester GL1 3NN, UK.
authors: Philippa C L
authors: PCL
authors: Moore
authors: Centre for Integrated Health Care Research, University of Durham Queens Campus, Stockton-on-Tees TS17 6BH, UK.
authors: James
authors: J
authors: Larcombe
authors: Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, Bristol BS2 8BJ, UK.
authors: Jan
authors: J
authors: Dudley
authors: University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, Leicester LE1 5WW, UK.
authors: Jaydip
authors: J
authors: Banerjee
authors: Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, Great Western Road, Gloucester GL1 3NN, UK.
authors: Lyda
authors: L
authors: Jadresic
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D001437:Bacteriuria / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000382:microbiology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003625:Data Collection; D004739:England; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007753:Laboratories / Q000592:standards*; D013222:State Medicine / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014552:Urinary Tract Infections / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology