PLoS One. 2011;6(12):e29556. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0029556. Epub 2011 Dec 28.

Prediction of high-grade vesicoureteral reflux after pediatric urinary tract infection: external validation study of procalcitonin-based decision rule.

Source

Centre for Statistics in Medicine, Oxford, United Kingdom. Sandrine.Leroy@pasteur.fr

Erratum in

PLoS One. 2012 Feb 21;78(8). doi: 10.1371/annotation/c23484a1-f516-4391-a23b-3db456be8edf.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Predicting vesico-ureteral reflux (VUR) ≥3 at the time of the first urinary tract infection (UTI) would make it possible to restrict cystography to high-risk children. We previously derived the following clinical decision rule for that purpose: cystography should be performed in cases with ureteral dilation and a serum procalcitonin level ≥0.17 ng/mL, or without ureteral dilatation when the serum procalcitonin level ≥0.63 ng/mL. The rule yielded a 86% sensitivity with a 46% specificity. We aimed to test its reproducibility.

STUDY DESIGN:

A secondary analysis of prospective series of children with a first UTI. The rule was applied, and predictive ability was calculated.

RESULTS:

The study included 413 patients (157 boys, VUR ≥3 in 11%) from eight centers in five countries. The rule offered a 46% specificity (95% CI, 41-52), not different from the one in the derivation study. However, the sensitivity significantly decreased to 64% (95%CI, 50-76), leading to a difference of 20% (95%CI, 17-36). In all, 16 (34%) patients among the 47 with VUR ≥3 were misdiagnosed by the rule. This lack of reproducibility might result primarily from a difference between derivation and validation populations regarding inflammatory parameters (CRP, PCT); the validation set samples may have been collected earlier than for the derivation one.

CONCLUSIONS:

The rule built to predict VUR ≥3 had a stable specificity (ie. 46%), but a decreased sensitivity (ie. 64%) because of the time variability of PCT measurement. Some refinement may be warranted.