Leucocyte esterase test strips exhibit very poor sensitivity for diagnosis of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis

Introduction: A common problem of patients with cirrhotic ascites is spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP). SBP is a trigger of renal impairment and, if untreated, denotes poor prognosis. Thus, rapid and accurate diagnosis of SBP is pivotal. Diagnosis of SBP is established by >=250 granulocytes/µl in ascitic fluid. Recently, urine reagent strips for leukocyte esterase detection have been proposed as a faster, cheap and accurate method to detect elevated granulocyte count in ascites (Hepatology 2003;37: 893–6). Methods: Ascitic fluid samples of patients with cirrhotic ascites were examined using two different r…