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Role of urine reagent strips in diagnosis of childhood meningitis

Objective The aim was to evaluate the role of urine reagent strips in the diagnosis of childhood meningitis and differentiating between septic and aseptic types. Background Previous research studies have declared that clinical manifestations of acute bacterial meningitis can be very subtle, nonspecific, or even absent, especially in neonates and infants. Urine reagent strips have been used to test urine, ascetic fluid, and pleural aspirate to evaluate infection in these biologic fluids. Patients and methods To reach the goal of this research, a prospective study was designed. The study sample included 50 participants divided into two groups. The first group was selected from clinically diagnosed patients with septic meningitis, whereas the second group was selected from clinically diagnosed patients with aseptic meningitis. All participants were subjected to detailed medical history taking, age, sex, vital signs, complete blood count with differential white blood cell count, blood culture, C-reactive protein, random blood sugar, urea, creatinine, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, and cerebrospinal fluid analysis. Results The authors found that there was a significant difference between septic and aseptic groups regarding presence of fever, which was more prevalent in septic group (P = 0.029). There were highly significant differences between both groups regarding cerebrospinal fluid reagent strip results with respect to cytology count, protein, and glucose (P < 0.001). Conclusion The study supports the association of urine reagent strips and early diagnosis of childhood meningitis and differentiating between septic and aseptic types.