URINARY-INFECTION IN THE GERIATRIC DEPART MENT - EVALUATION OF CBUE STRIPS

The blinded study of CBUE (cytobacteriological urine examination) test strips was carried out in 100 patients (65 women, 35 men), mean age 8 5.52 +/- 6.28 years, admitted for a short stay in a geriatrics departm ent. Urinary infection was present in 19% of the cases. Typical clinic al signs (pollakiuria, dysuria, hematuria, burning upon voiding) were rare, less than 10%. General signs, such as deterioration of general s tatus (65% of the cases) and loss of autonomy (53% of the cases), on t he other hand were predominant and their relatively unspecific nature required a reliable screening test for urinary infection. Good results of sensitivity (89.5%), specificity (98.7%), and the leukocytes/nitri tes values, confirmed the validity of the urine test strip in hospital ized elderly patients. In addition, the negative predictive value of t he combination leukocytes and nitrites (90.8%) would have prevented 71 samples from being sent to the laboratory for CBUE, resulting in an o bvious financial savings.