Ask a doctor on the topic of Internal medicine

The child has leukocytes in the urine.

July 12, 2017 | 30,00 EUR | answered by Dr. med. Ralf Berg

Hello,

my question is, our child (girl) is 2 years old since May.

Today we did a urine test, which showed that she has leukocytes in her urine. Everything else was negative.

I hope for a response.

Dr. med. Ralf Berg

Dear parents,

If your child has no complaints, the urine is clear and does not have an unpleasant odor, these facts should be given more weight than the strip test.

Finding leukocytes in the urine without also detecting blood, bacteria, or nitrites, which are causative of leukocytosis in an infection, is very rare.

Possible causes such as extremely poor nutritional status, advanced age, are ruled out from the outset.

To rule out misidentification, I would recommend repeating the test on another day if in doubt. Factors such as age, storage of the test strips, and absolutely sterile collection of the urine must be considered to exclude misidentifications.

When collecting the urine, it is important to ensure that only "midstream urine" (the portion that is neither at the beginning nor end of urination) is used for testing, preferably after a longer pause, usually in the morning.

If this result is repeated, I recommend that you consult your child's or family doctor to see if the same result occurs there. The doctor can then order further tests (urine culture, sediment, etc.) if clinical suspicion of a disease arises.

Under the circumstances, I am most likely to suspect misidentification or contamination.

Best regards,
Dr. R. Berg

PS: Please let me know if the same result occurs at the doctor's office. As a consequence, I suggest the following: