RESUMO
PIP: The incidence of urinary tract infection (UTI) varies depending on the age of the child. In 1984 a review of 1000 school children in the city of Santo Domingo found an incidence of 0.4%. In a prospective study 109 patients were investigated who presented at the outpatient consulting ward of nephrology of the Robert Reid Cabral Hospital, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, with fever and/or clinical symptoms suggestive of UTI. Uroculture was taken by means of suprapubic punction in all those cases which had not received antimicrobial therapy at least 72 hours before taking the specimens. The signs of UTI in the 109 patients were dysuria, urinary incontinence, and enuresis. 41 patients had urocultures positive for UTI bacteria, while the remaining 68 children's urocultures did not show bacterial growth, therefore they were judged not to have UTI. In the 41 patients with UTI the etiologic agents were Escherichia coli in 20 (48.78%), Enterobacter in 14 (34.15%), Klebsiella in 4 (9.76%), Staphylococcus in 4 (9.76%), Pseudomonas in 4 (9.76%), and Salmonella in 3 (7.32%). In all cases of positive uroculture more than 10 leukocytes were observed in the urinary sediment. Only 15 of the 41 patients with positive uroculture had leukocytosis. Fever as a clinical symptom was found in 7 of the 109 cases, and in 3 of these bacteria were grown in the uroculture. In 40 patients out of 109 the fever was associated with clinical signs of UTI, finding positive uroculture in 20 of these patients.^ieng