Usefulness of urine dipstick tests

EDITOR,—Several studies,1 2 including that by J H Beer and colleagues,3 have highlighted the fact that there is still debate over the diagnostic accuracy of rapid dipstick tests. Beer and colleagues point out that the presence of certain antibiotics in urine samples may cause false positive results. Other workers have pointed out that false negative results may be due to antibiotics, glucose, or oxalic acid. Bonnardeaux et al concluded that results of dipstick tests were an unreliable predictor of results of microscopy and that false negative results can …