The urinary tract infection is the most common complication in the patients with spinal cord injury.

The objectives of this study are to analyze the clinical aspects of the urinary tract infection and to evaluate the clinical usefulness of the Leukocyte esterase (LE) and Nitrite tests as a screening test for the urinary tract infection in the patinets with spinal cord injury.

The subjects of this study were 48 patients with spinal cord injury who were admitted in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Wonju Christian Hospital from January 1, 1989 to June 30, 1991. Among them, 17 patients were performed the LE and Nitrite tests by using Ames Multistix and urine culture.

The results were as follows:

1) The incidence of the urinary tract infection was 77.1% in 48 patients and it was greater in the complete lesion and the quadriplegics than that of the incomplete lesion and the paraplegics.

2) The most common causative organism of urinary tract infection was Enterococcus, followed by Escherichia Coil.

3) The LE test had sensitivity of 40.4% and specificity of 98.8%. The Nitrite test had sensitivity of 45.4% and specificity of 98.8%. The low sensitivity of these tests was due to many false negative results in the enterococcal infection.

The conclusion of this study is that the LE and Nitrite tests had limited value as a screening test for the urinary tract infection in the patients with spinal cord injury.

Keywords :Spinal cord injury, Urinary tract infection, Leukocyte Esterase (LE) test, Nitrite test