Accuracy of new clean-catch technique for diagnosis of urinary tract infection in infants younger than 90 days of age

Abstract

The objective of this study is to evaluate the accuracy of diagnosing urinary tract infections using a new, recently described, standardized clean-catch collection technique. Sixty paired urine cultures were obtained. The median age was 44-days-old. Seventeen percent were male infants. Clean-catch technique sensitivity was 97% (95% CI 82% to 100%) and specificity was 89% (95% CI 65% to 98%). The contamination rate of clean-catch samples was lower (5%) than the contamination rate of catheter specimens (8%). The sensitivity and specificity of urine cultures obtained using the clean-catch method through the new technique were accurate and the contamination rate was low. These results suggest that this technique is a valuable, alternative method for urinary tract infection diagnosis.