Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin for urinary tract infection and pyelonephritis: a systematic review

The sensitivity and specificity of the leukocyte esterase test are relatively low for a screening test for urinary tract infection (UTI). More accurate tests could reduce both overtreatment and missed cases. This study aimed to determine whether neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) can replace leukocyte esterase in the diagnosis of UTI and/or whether NGAL accurately identifies children with acute pyelonephritis.

Data sources-MEDLINE and EMBASE. We only considered published studies that evaluated the results of an index test (NGAL) against the results of urine culture (for UTI) or against the results of dimercaptosuccinic acid (for acute pyelonephritis) in children aged 0 to 18 years. Two authors independently applied the selection criteria to all citations and independently extracted the data.

A total of 12 studies met our inclusion criteria. Four studies (920 children) included data on NGAL for UTI; eight studies (580 children) included data on NGAL for pyelonephritis. We did not pool accuracy values because the included studies used different cutoff values. For the diagnosis of UTI, urinary NGAL appeared to have better accuracy than the leukocyte esterase test in all included studies. For the diagnosis of pyelonephritis, neither plasma NGAL nor urinary NGAL had high sensitivity and/or specificity. The number of studies was the main limitation of this systematic review.

Urinary NGAL appears promising for the diagnosis of UTI; however, larger studies are needed to validate this marker as a replacement for leukocyte esterase. The use of NGAL for diagnosing acute pyelonephritis requires further study.