Screening for bacteriuria in healthy Japanese school children

Bacteriuria was screened among 28,202 healthy school children, 14,575 boys and 13,627 girls by dipstick and dipslide methods and also by pour plate culture method. Prevalence of bacteriuria was 0.06% in boys and 0.54% in girls after third screening. A high rate of false negative results with dipstick test and a high rate of false positive results with dipslide culture method using Microstix-3 were observed. About 60% of screened children continued to have bacteriuria persistently for 9 months after third screening followed by monthly urine culture. Anomalies of urinary tract were detected in 9 of 26 children with persistent bacteriuria.