Role of urine culture in pediatric cancer patients with fever and
neutropenia. A Spanish Pediatric Emergency Research Group (RISeuP-SPERG)
Study
Abstract
Background: Controversy surrounds the routine use of urine
culture (UC) in febrile neutropenic children. We aimed to evaluate the
need for routine urine studies in febrile neutropenic children with
cancer. Procedure: We conducted a prospective study of
pediatric cancer patients with urinary continence who presented to the
emergency department with febrile neutropenia between 2019 and 2021.
Epidemiologic data and clinical and laboratory findings were collected.
Urinary tract infection (UTI) was defined as urinary signs/symptoms and
positive UC with or without pyuria. Study data were analyzed using
descriptive statistics. The diagnostic performance of urinalysis was
calculated using positive UC as the gold standard. Results:
Positive UC was found in seven of the 205 children included (3.4%; 95%
CI 1.4-6-9%), 2 presenting urinary symptoms. UTI prevalence was 1.0%
(95% CI 0.1-3.5). A 23.8% prevalence of positive UC was found in
patients with urinary symptoms and/or history of urinary tract disease
(95% CI 8.2-47.2%) as compared to 1.1% of those without symptoms or
history (95% CI 0.1-3.9%) (p<0.001). The sensitivity,
specificity, negative predictive value, and area under the curve for
urinalysis was 16.7% (95% CI 3.0-56.4), 98.4% (95% CI 95.3-99.4),
97.3% (95% CI 93.9-98.9), and 0.65 (95% CI 0.51-0.79), respectively.
Conclusions: UTI is an infrequent cause of infection in these
patients. Urinalysis is indicated only in febrile neutropenic children
with urinary signs/symptoms and in asymptomatic patients with a history
of urinary tract disease. When urine is collected, UC should be
requested regardless of the result of the urinalysis.