Correlation of periscreen strip results and white cell count in peritoneal dialysis peritonitis

Monitoring of peritoneal dialysis (PD) peritonitis can be difficult for visually impaired patients. PeriScreen strips measure leukocyte esterase activity and this might be a useful objective test that can be performed by patients at home.

A prospective study of 138 episodes of peritonitis was undertaken. Effluent samples were analysed for white cell count (WCC) and PeriScreen score on days 3 and 5. Co-morbidity data were collated from these patients.

Effluent WCC and PeriScreen results were found to correlate with the gold standard assessment of microbiology WCC count. A positive PeriScreen result on day 5 predicted that the episode of peritonitis would relapse after treatment with a sensitivity of 80% but with a poor specificity of 45%. Patients who cleared or relapsed their peritonitis could not be differentiated based on their burden of co-morbidity, Karnofsky scores, age, dialysis vintage or infective organism.

PeriScreen strip analysis correlated with microscopic WCC of PD. However, analysis of PD effluent on day 5 of treatment is not a good test to risk stratify patients for relapsing peritonitis.