Significance of urine dipstick in the evaluation of hematuria in patient with renal trauma

Uh, Hong Sun; Yang, Sang Kook; Kim, Kwang Jin; Kim, Sung Jin

Abstract

Hematuria has been the most reliable sign of injury to the urinary system. Thus. the rapid and accurate detection of hematuria in the emergency room is essential. In 149 patients with renal trauma in whom radiographic studies defined the severity of injury, we compared the degree of microscopic hematuria determined by dipstick and microscopic urinalysis. Falge positive dipstick occurred in 5(3.6%) patients and false negative dipstick in 4(3.3% ) patients. The dipstick method had greater than 96.4 percent sensitivity and specificity for detection of microscopic hematuria. The correlation between the 2 methods was low (Person`s coefficient 0.4114). However. 85.5 percent or the urine sample with more than 20 red blood cells per high power field corresponded to a dipstick results of 3+ (Regression Y = 0.0129x + 2.93, F = 28.12. p < 0.005). Although microscopic hematuria may be quantified more accurately by microscopic analysis, the urine dipstick is a rapid and reliable screening test with high degree of sensitivity and specificity for the microscopic hematuria in patients with renal trauma.