Correlation of leukocyte esterase activity and bacterial isolation from body fluids.

We evaluated 230 body fluid samples, of which 131 were peritoneal effluents and 99 were other body fluids. Of these, 63 dialysates were culture positive, and 54 (85.7%) of these 63 were leukocyte esterase positive. Of 99 other body fluids, 8 were both culture positive and leukocyte esterase positive.