Salinas-Botrán Alejandro, Martín-Rico Patricia, Valdivia Antonio, Pellicer Ángel, Esparcia Óscar
Servicio de Medicina Interna, Hospital de Denia, Denia, Alicante, España.
Servicio de Medicina Interna, Hospital de Denia, Denia, Alicante, España.
Med Clin (Barc). 2016 Apr 15;146(8):346-7. doi: 10.1016/j.medcli.2015.10.019. Epub 2015 Dec 24.
Although urine pneumococcal antigen is an useful test, it has false positives such as pneumococcal vaccination.
Positive urine pneumococcal antigen in Hospital de Denia (January-February/2015). We studied epidemiological, radiological and microbiological variables as well as previous pneumococcal vaccination (neumo-23 and/or neumo-13).
Urine pneumococcal antigen test was positive in 12.4% of 385 cases. Only 33.3% of positive cases had pneumonia in chest X-ray, and 35.4% of patients had previous pneumococcal vaccination. In most cases (87.5%), an antibiotic was prescribed.
Pneumococcal vaccination can produce a false positive result in the urine pneumococcal antigen test in clinical practice, leading to an unnecessary prescription of antibiotics.