Urinary leukocyte, nitrite, and leukocyte esterase correlation with urine culture in urinary tract infection patients

Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of most common bacterial infections in women. These infections cause uncomfortableness, morbidity, loss of work time and high cost for therapies. Gold standard examination for diagnosis of UTI is urine culture. Another common laboratory examination for UTI is urinalysis. Urinalysis is faster and easier to do than urine culture. To know how well the ability of urinalysis to detect UTI, urinary leukocytes, nitrite, and leukocyte esterase correlation with urine culture is assessed. This is an analytic observational study using a cross sectional design. Data was obtained from Laboratory Information System (LIS) Clinical Pathology and Microbiology Installation at Dr. Mohammad Hoesin General Hospital Palembang. The population consisted of all of UTI patients whose result of urinary leukocytes, nitrite, leukocyte esterase and urine culture. By using incidental sampling, 163 samples were collected, taken from 1st November 2015 until 31st January 2016 data period. The data was analyzed by descriptive and bivariate methods (Somers'd correlation) and presented in tables and narration. Urinary leukocytes, nitrite, and leukocyte esterase have a very significant correlation with urine culture (p<0.01). Urinary leukocytes have a weak correlation with urine culture (r = 0.295), urinary nitrite has a weak correlation (r = 0.391), and urinary leukocyte esterase has a weak correlation (r = 0.302).