Objective The main aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of urine reagent strip tests in the diagnosis of meningitis.
Patients and methods Fifty children with a mean age of 6.53+4.55 years who were clinically suspected to have meningitis were recruited from Benha University Hospital and Shebin El Koom Fever Hospital. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples were tested using both Combur-10 urinary reagent strip and CSF microscopy examination as reference standards.
Results The diagnostic accuracy of protein estimation by reagent strip showed 100% sensitivity and 3.7% specificity for the detection of CSF proteins at the level of 100mg/dl, whereas the specificity was 50% at the level of 47mg/dl. Glucose reagent strip had 96.8% sensitivity and 100% specificity for the detection of CSF glucose at the level of 46mg/dl. Leukocyte esterase positivity by test strip had a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 75% for the detection of CSF granulocytes of more than