Measurement of pyuria in urinary tract infections.

The value of pyuria in the diagnosis of urinary tract infection is related to the accuracy and reli- ability of the technique by which it is assessed.Two methods are widely used for this purpose, centrifugation of the urine with an estimate of the number of pus cells 'per high-power field', and an actual count of the pus cells in uncentrifuged urine in a counting chamber.It is not the purpose of this paper to compare the relative importance of pyuria and bacteriuria in the diagnosis of urinary infection, but only to evaluate the two techniques used to measure pyuria in this circumstance.Stansfeld and Webb (1953), Linneweh (1958), and Zapp and Jung (1963) all made this comparison and obtained different results.Pryles and Eliot (1966) found the discrepancy so great that they concluded that. . .'satisfactory correlation was not possible'.These results prompted a further assessment of this unsatisfactory situation.