Urinary tract infections in young infants with a normal urine dipstick.

Aim: To assess missed urinary tract infections (UTI) in febrile infants ≤2 months when adhering to recent guidelines suggesting not to send a urine culture with a negative dipstick.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study of 308 infants ≤2 months with a positive urine culture admitted in 2013-2023, divided into subgroups without exposure to urine dipstick results: 'urosepsis' (UTI with bacteraemia), 'UTI' (positive urine culture, elevated inflammatory markers, no other cause of fever) and 'bacteriuria' (positive urine culture, not meeting the above-mentioned criteria). After retrieving the dipstick results, the 'missed UTI' group (UTI+ negative dipstick) was described.