Urinary tract infection is the most common complication and major cause of death in patients with spinal cord injury. To diagnose a urinary tract infection, it is necessary to examine the bacterial colony count in urine culture study. However, this needs lots of time and costs, equipments, and a specialist for interpretation. Therefore, only the urinalysis is frequently used as a screening test for urinary tract infection.

The purpose of this study were to compare the sensitivity and specificity between bacteriuria and pyuria in the patients who showed positive finding in urine culture study; to evaluate the clinical usefulness of bateriuria and pyuria as a screening test for urinary tract infections in patients with spinal cord injury.

The subjects of this study were 67 cases among the patients with spinal cord injury who were admitted to the Wonju Christian Hospital from January 1991 to March 1995.

The results were;

1) The overall incidence of urinary tract infection was 88.1%, being 85% in men an 100% in women.

2) The sensitivity of the bacteriuria was 57.6 % and the specificity was 87.5%. Whereas the sensitivity of the pyuria was higher at 66.1% and the speciticity was much lower at 62.5%.

3) There was a much higher population in the asymptomatic group, 42 cases(71.2%) in the group of patients with urinary tract infection.

4) We found that 14 species of different organisms in urine culture study. Of all, Escherichia coli was the most common organism.

In conclusion, combined study of both urinalysis and urine culture study is suggested as a screening test in the patients with spinal cord injury.

Keywords :Sensitivity, Specificity, Bacteriuria, Pyuria