Office screening for urinary tract infections in infancy.

A retrospective report of the experience of nine years of simplified office screening for infantile urinary tract infection (UTI) is compared with the more invasive and stringent methodology widely considered necessary. Urine samples were obtained from 1313 infants of two years or less. In 27 of these infants UTI was diagnosed and the data analysed from 24 cases. Nine infants were completely asymptomatic, while the rest had non-specific symptoms. Radiological investigations were carried out in all the infants with UTI. Urine samples were obtained without any specific precleansing of the perineum, and the criteria for diagnosing UTI were two consecutive positive cultures. The results were statistically similar to studies in which there was pre-cleansing, and in which the criteria were three consecutive positive cultures.