Evaluation of using urine reagent strips in the diagnosis of childhood meningitis

Objective The main aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of urine reagent strip tests in the diagnosis of meningitis. Patients and methods Fifty children with a mean age of 6.53+4.55 years who were clinically suspected to have meningitis were recruited from Benha University Hospital and Shebin El Koom Fever Hospital. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples were tested using both Combur-10 urinary reagent strip and CSF microscopy examination as reference standards. Results The diagnostic accuracy of protein estimation by reagent strip showed 100% sensitivity and 3.7% specificity for the detection of CSF proteins at the level of 100 mg/dl, whereas the specificity was 50% at the level of 47 mg/dl. Glucose reagent strip had 96.8% sensitivity and 100% specificity for the detection of CSF glucose at the level of 46 mg/dl. Leukocyte esterase positivity by test strip had a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 75% for the detection of CSF granulocytes of more than 10 granulocytes/mm. There was a significant increase in CSF parameters (leukocyte, protein) by both methods and a highly significant increase in glucose in the septic group compared with the aseptic group. Conclusion Urinary reagent strips offer a clinically useful and rapid screening method for the quantitative determination of CSF, glucose, protein, and leukocytes.