Ellen A. Reynolds

Oral Versus Initial Intravenous Therapy for Urinary Tract Infections in Young Febrile Children

Background. The standard recommendation for treatment of young, febrile children with urinary tract infection has been hospitalization for intravenous antimicrobials. The availability of potent, oral, third-generation cephalosporins as well as interest in cost containment and avoidance of nosocomial risks prompted evaluation of the safety and efficacy of outpatient therapy. Methods. In a multicenter, randomized clinical trial, we evaluated the efficacy of oral versus initial intravenous therapy in 306 children 1 to 24 months old with fever and urinary tract infection, in terms of short-term clinical outcomes (sterilization of the urine and defervescence) and long-term morbidity (incidence of reinfection and incidence and extent of renal scarring documented at 6 months by99mTc-dimercaptosuccinic acid renal scans). Children received either oral cefixime for 14 days (double dose on day 1) or initial intravenous cefotaxime for 3 days followed by oral cefixime for 11 days. Results. Treatment groups were comparable regarding demographic, clinical, and laboratory characteristics. Bacteremia was present in 3.4% of children treated orally and 5.3% of children treated intravenously. Of the short-term outcomes, 1) repeat urine cultures were sterile within 24 hours in all children, and 2) mean time to defervescence was 25 and 24 hours for children treated orally and intravenously, respectively. Of the long-term outcomes, 1) symptomatic reinfections occurred in 4.6% of children treated orally and 7.2% of children treated intravenously, 2) renal scarring at 6 months was noted in 9.8% children treated orally versus 7.2% of children treated intravenously, and 3) mean extent of scarring was ∼8% in both treatment groups. Mean costs were at least twofold higher for children treated intravenously (

Effect of number of blood cultures and volume of blood on detection of bacteremia in children.

3577 vs

IS URINE CULTURE NECESSARY TO RULE OUT URINARY TRACT INFECTION IN YOUNG FEBRILE CHILDREN

1473) compared with those treated orally. Conclusions. Oral cefixime can be recommended as a safe and effective treatment for children with fever and urinary tract infection. Use of cefixime will result in substantial reductions of health care expenditures.

Pyuria and bacteriuria in urine specimens obtained by catheter from young children with fever

OBJECTIVE To determine whether bacteremia can be detected more rapidly and completely by (1) obtaining two blood cultures instead of one and/or (2) collecting a larger volume of blood. STUDY DESIGN Prospective comparison of different strategies in 300 patients undergoing blood culture for suspected bacteremia. Each patient had two samples of blood, A (2 ml) and B (9.5 ml), obtained sequentially from separate sites. The B sample was divided into three aliquots: B1 (2 ml), B2 (6 ml), and ISO (1.5 ml, quantitative culture). RESULTS A pathogen was isolated from one or more blood cultures in 30 patients (10% of cases). When measured at 24 hours, the pathogen recovery rate for the B2 sample (72%) was higher than that for the individual small-volume samples (A = 37%, B1 = 33%; p < 0.01 for each comparison) and for the combination of the two small-volume samples (A + B1 = 47%; p = 0.04). At final (7-day) reading the pathogen recovery rate for the B2 sample (83%) was higher than that for B1 (60%; p = 0.02) and similar to the recovery rate observed with the combination of the two small-volume cultures (A + B1 = 73%; p = 0.55). CONCLUSIONS Increasing the volume of blood inoculated into blood culture bottles improves the timely detection of bacteremia in pediatric patients and spares the patients the cost and pain of an additional venipuncture.

Enhanced Urinalysis as a Screening Test for Urinary Tract Infection

OBJECTIVE To determine whether the absence of pyuria on the enhanced urinalysis can be used to eliminate the diagnosis of urinary tract infection, avoiding the need for urine culture and sparing large health care expenditures. DESIGN Results of an enhanced urinalysis (hemocytometer counts and interpretation of Gram-stained smears) performed on uncentrifuged urine specimens obtained by catheter were correlated with urine cultures in young febrile children at the Childrens Hospital of Pittsburgh Emergency Department. In a group of 4253 children (95% febrile) less than 2 years of age, pyuria was defined as > or = 10 white blood cells/mm3, bacteriuria as any bacteria on any of 10 oil immersion fields in a Gram-stained smear and a positive culture as > or = 50,000 colony-forming units/ml. A subgroup of 153 children with their first diagnosed urinary tract infection were enrolled in a separate treatment trial, acute phase reactants (peripheral white blood cell count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein) were obtained and 99Tc-dimercaptosuccinic acid renal scans were performed. RESULTS The presence of either pyuria or bacteriuria and the presence of both pyuria and bacteriuria have the highest sensitivity (95%) and positive predictive value (85%), respectively, for identifying positive urine cultures. Because a white blood cell count in a hemocytometer is the technically simpler component of the enhanced urinalysis, we chose to analyze the false negative results and achievable cost savings of using pyuria alone as the sole criterion for omitting urine cultures. If in this study urine cultures had been performed only on specimens from children who had pyuria or were managed presumptively with antibiotics, cultures of 2600 (61%) specimens would have been avoided. Twenty-two of 212 patients with positive urine cultures would not have been identified initially. However, based on interpretation of acute phase reactants, initial 99Tc-dimercaptosuccinic acid scan results, response to management and incidence of renal scarring 6 months later, 14 of the 22 patients most likely had asymptomatic bacteriuria and fever from another cause. The remaining 8 patients probably had early urinary tract infection. CONCLUSIONS The analysis of urine samples obtained by catheter for the presence of significant pyuria (> or = 10 white blood cells/mm3) can be used to guide decisions regarding the need for urine culture in young febrile children.