[Urinary tract infections. Sensitivity and specificity of previous screening methods (author's transl)]

The frequency of symptomatic and unapparent bacteriuria in infants and children of preschool age is estimated to be 1 to 2%. Ca. 5% of all girls and less than 0.5% of all boys between the ages of 6 and 19 years undergo bacteriuria. Women suffer from it to 5 to 15% during pregnancy and diabetics of about 10 to 20%. The sensitivity and specificity of different screening processes are evaluated with reference to numerous publications. It appears that the agar slide, which is in use all over the world, is markedly superior to all other methods with respect to price, handling and sensitivity, The only weakness of this method is frequent failure in the presence of inhibitors in the urine sample.