Tool for UTI detection beneficial in primary care setting, may reduce unnecessary antibiotics use

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the most common type of infections managed in the outpatient setting, accounting for 1% to 3% of all consultations, 15% of all community prescriptions for antibiotics.

Urinary tract infections (UTI) are commonly diagnosed and treated in primary care. The gold standard for diagnosing a UTI is a urine culture. However, waiting for culture results delays treatment, so doctors often prescribe antibiotics while awaiting those results. Researchers modified a UTI detection algorithm developed and validated in an emergency room population to be usable in a primary care setting.

The main modification was removing the requirements for microscopy since results are often not available in primary care. Researchers found that the removal of microscopy features did not severely compromise performance of the UTI detection algorithm in emergency department patients. Additionally, the algorithm performed well in the primary care sample. Results suggest that the new algorithm could be used to safely withhold antibiotics in low risk patients, thereby reducing antibiotic overuse.

Reference:

Gurpreet Dhanda, Mirna Asham, Denton Shanks, Nicole O’Malley, Joel Hake, Megha Teeka Satyan, Nicole T. Yedlinsky and Daniel J. Parente The Annals of Family Medicine January 2023, 21 (1) 11-18; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.2902