| Clinical features and settings |
Patients presenting to hospital or emergency department with a UTI |
| Participants |
306 children 1 to 24 months old with a first febrile UTI |
| Study design |
Prospective |
| Target condition and reference standard(s) |
Pyelonephritis, DMSA |
| Index and comparator tests |
ESR, CRP |
| Follow‐up |
|
| Notes |
Additional information provided by authors |
| Table of Methodological Quality |
| Item |
Authors' judgement |
Description |
| Representative spectrum?
All tests |
Yes |
Patients with UTI systematically enrolled from primary care setting without additional inclusion/exclusion population restrictions |
| Acceptable reference standard?
All tests |
Yes |
Pyelonephritis defined as the presence of photopenia on planar DMSA |
| Acceptable delay between tests?
All tests |
Yes |
DMSA conducted within 15 days of diagnosis |
| Partial verification avoided?
All tests |
Yes |
All patients (or random selection of patients) received verification of diagnosis with DMSA scan |
| Differential verification avoided?
All tests |
Yes |
Patients received verification of pyelonephritis using DMSA regardless of index test result |
| Incorporation avoided?
All tests |
Yes |
DMSA alone was used as the reference standard |
| Index test results blinded?
All tests |
Yes |
Index test results were interpreted without knowledge of the DMSA scan results |
| Reference standard results blinded?
All tests |
Yes |
DMSA scan interpreted blind to status of other tests |
| Relevant clinical information?
All tests |
Yes |
Standard cutoffs used for test result interpretation, not influenced by clinical data |
| Uninterpretable results reported?
All tests |
Yes |
All test results were reported |
| Withdrawals explained?
All tests |
Yes |
Able to account for all patients |
