Comparison of nitrite and dipslide methods for bacteriuria screening.

The results of screening for bacteriuria by the nitrite reaction and the dipslide method were compared. The nitrite reaction was specific in 99.8%, its sensitivity was 93.1% and its reproducibility, 100%. Specificity of the dipslide method was 94.5%. The nitrite reactions is considered most suited for screening, owing to its specificity, satisfactory sensitivity, short time requirement and low cost. The dipslide method is not suited for screening, as apart from being expensive it yielded 5.5% false positive reactions, but proved excellent for estimating the bacterial count in nitrite positive samples.