• Pediatr. Infect. Dis. J. · Sep 2003

    Analysis of the efficacy of urine culture as part of sepsis evaluation in the premature infant.

    • Mohammed M Tamim, Hassan Alesseh, and Hany Aziz.
    • Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Case Western Reserve University, MetroHealth Medical Center, 2500 MetroHealth Drive, Cleveland, OH 44109, USA. mtamim@metrohealth.org
    • Pediatr. Infect. Dis. J. 2003 Sep 1;22(9):805-8.

    BackgroundPremature infants have a higher incidence of urinary tract infection (UTI) than full term infants. UTI in premature infants can present with signs of sepsis: poor weight gain; temperature instability; metabolic acidosis; poor feeding; and abdominal distention.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to determine the usefulness of routine urine culture as part of a sepsis evaluation in the preterm infants.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective review of all infants with birth weight <1500 g (very low birth weight) who underwent sepsis evaluation at MetroHealth Medical Center between January 1991 and February 1998. All infants from whom urine and blood specimens were collected concomitantly for culture as part of a sepsis evaluation were included.ResultsIncluded were 538 infants. Their mean gestational age was 28.5 +/- 2.7 weeks, and mean birth weight was 1072 +/- 276 g. Blood and urine specimens for culture were taken from 349 infants on admission or in the first 24 h of life (Group A), their mean birth weight was 1147 +/- 244 g, and mean gestational age was 28.9 +/- 2.6 weeks. None of these infants had positive urine cultures; 8 infants (2%) had positive blood cultures. Blood and urine specimens were obtained from 189 infants later between Days 6 and 150 of life (Group B); their mean birth weight was 933 +/- 278 g, and mean gestational age was 27.5 +/- 2.5 weeks. Forty-eight infants (25.3%) in Group B had positive urine cultures, and 79 infants (41.7%) had positive blood cultures. Eighteen infants (38%) with positive urine cultures had positive blood cultures, and 30 infants (62%) had negative blood cultures.ConclusionsThere is minimal benefit in obtaining urine cultures from very low birth weight infants as part of a sepsis evaluation in the first 24 h of life. It is important to obtain urine cultures from older infants with signs of sepsis to identify patients with UTI with or without bacteremia.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…