Interleukin 8 is a surrogate marker for rapid diagnosis of bacteriuria.

Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the most common sources of infection in children under 5. Rapid diagnosis is a need to avoid complications of UTI. The goal of the present study was to evaluate the use of urinary interleukin 8 (IL8) as a rapid laboratory method for diagnosis of UTI. A total of 116 children were included in the study. They were complaining of different diseases with pyuria. In addition twenty healthy children were included as control subjects. Urine samples were subjected to full chemical, cytological and bacteriological examinations. In addition, urinary IL8 was measured. Patients showed significantly elevated urine IL-8 levels (80-820 pg/ml) compared to control subjects (6-10 pg/ml) (p < 0.0001). There was significant correlation between interleukin 8 level and white blood cells counts in urine (p = 0.039). The mean +/- SD of urinary IL-8 was significantly increased 165.8 +/- 115.1 in urine with bacterial growth (Staphylococcus species and Escherichia coli) p < 0.001 than in urine without growth. Urine with Escherichia coli (E. coli) growth had significantly higher IL 8 level than growth with other types of organisms. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value and negative predictive value had higher level for IL8 compared to other parameters in urine examination i.e., nitrite, WBCs and RBCs (85.7%, 60%, 64%, 87%, 64% respectively). This study highlights that bacteriuria is associated with higher level of urinary interleukin 8 than pyuria without bacteriuria. Thus from this study we can conclude that IL8 can be used as rapid surrogate marker for rapid laboratory diagnosis of urosepsis.