Background: Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) test provides valuable information in screening, diagnosis, as well as monitoring disease activity and therapeutic response in numerous health conditions. The most commonly used method for determination of ESR is Westergren method, which is time-consuming and requires a large amount of blood sample. There are several other methods, like Micro-ESR method which overcome the limitations of conventional Westergren method, hence the present study was performed to compare results of Westergren method with Micro-ESR method for determination of ESR.Methods: In the present study, blood samples from 100 patients were processed for ESR determination by Westergren method and Micro-ESR method. The results obtained were compared using Pearson’s correlation test.Results: The Westergren method was the reference method and the Micro-ESR method was testing method. The comparison was done between Micro- ESR method results (X-axis) and results of Westergren method (Y-axis). The slope of the regression line using linear regression was 1.010 with a y-intercept of -0.788. Statistical analysis demonstrated significant correlation of results of Micro-ESR method with Westergren method (r = 0.9977).Conclusions: Micro-ESR is a reliable and precise method for ESR measurement. The Micro- ESR method is simple to perform and requires very small volume of blood (0.2ml) as compared to conventional Westergren method. It can be potential useful tool in performing ESR determination especially for the patients with limitation of blood availability as pediatric patients and very old patients.

INTRODUCTIONUrinary tract infection (UTI) is a common health problem. Most of the times, clinical findings of UTI are subtle and non-specific and present with fever only. However, UTI can pose serious complications like septicemia, renal abscesses etc.Hence, timely and accurate diagnosis of UTI is pertinent. Microscopic urinary sediment analysis, urine culture, dipstick analysis are the common methodologies used to detect UTI. Recently, even flow cytometry, renal or bladder ultrasound, cystourethrogram were also utilized for diagnosis of UTI.1,2 However, since decades urine culture has been the gold standard for detection of UTI. 1,3,4 Above cited techniques are time consuming and expensive. There are several studies in which urinary gram stain was utilized for UTI detection. [3][4][5][6] In the present study, we evaluated the efficiency of urinary gram stain for detection of UTI using urine culture as gold standard. METHODSThe midstream urine specimen was collected in sterilized tubes from male (55 cases) and female patients (45 cases) in the age group of 20-50years with clinical symptoms suggesting UTI. All the urine samples were processed by centrifugation at 3000rpm for 15minutes. Centrifuged samples were submitted for urine microscopy, urinary gram stain and urine culture. The patients receiving ABSTRACTBackground: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the most common infections in humans. Timely diagnosis and treatment are necessary to reduce the complications from UTI. Urine culture is still the gold standard diagnostic test for UTI, however it is costly and time consuming. The present study was conducted to compare the utility of urinary gram stain, microscopy of centrifuged urine sample and urine culture for the diagnosis of UTI. Methods: 100 urine samples were processed for gram stain, culture and microscopy. Urinary gram stain findings were correlated with microscopy and culture results. Using urine culture as gold standard, the sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of urinary gram stain were assessed for the diagnosis of UTI. Results: The accuracy of urinary gram stain for detection of UTI was 97%. Conclusions: Urinary gram stain is a reliable diagnostic test for early detection of UTI.