[Clinical importance of sampling method in leucocyturia (author's transl)]

The clinical importance of the method of obtaining a urine sample (spontaneous vs. catheter and midstream specimens) was investigated in 507 in-patients. Whereas leucocyturia was demonstrated with the Cytur-Test on spontaneous urine from 105 patients, only 30 out of 89 of these patients showed leucocyturia in catheter or midstream specimens one to three days later. All 30 positive cases were found to have a disease state which causes leucocyturia. A direct comparison between spontaneous urine and midstream or catheter urine taken at the same time in 68 patients showed a leucocyturia in 20 cases in spontaneous urine which could not be confirmed in the midstream or catheter urine. This drastic difference shows the importance of the method of obtaining specimens in estimating leucocyturia.