Microscopic Examination of Fecal Leukocytes as a Simple Method to Detecting Infective Colitis in Children

Abstract

Various pathogenic bacteria are reported as the cause of infectious colitis in children. Infectious colitis does not have a specific sign, therefore an accurate examination is required. The implementation of fecal cultures accompanied with drug resistance tests often have constraints, beside the relatively expensive costs, longer times are needed, and not all health care facilities have required instruments. On the other hand, this condition requires an immediate antibiotic therapy, so that the infection should not be continued. In daily practice, it is not uncommon to find diarrhea with the amount of fecal leukocyte 8. The sensitivity value was 83.3% and the specificity value was 45.1%. The antibiotic sensitivity test showed that one child infected by EPEC was sensitive to ciprofloxacin. Two children infected by Salmonella, were still sensitive to chloramphenicol, cotrimoxazole, cefixime, and ceftriaxone. Two children infected by C. Difficile were sensitive to ceftriaxone, and 1 child infected by Shigella was sensitive to cefixime, ceftriaxone and ciprofloksazine.

Keywords

• infectious colitis
• fecal leukocytes
• fecal cultures