Is a dipstick test sufficient to exclude urinary tract infection in women with overactive bladder?

A dipstick test is recommended to screen for urinary tract infection in patients with overactive bladder (OAB). It was the aim of this study to test if a dipstick test is sufficient to identify patients with urinary tract infection attending a urological private practice because of OAB.

All patients who attended the practice because of OAB symptoms were routinely catheterized; a urine specimen was tested with dipstick, the spun sediment was examined microscopically, and the specimen was sent for microbiological examination.

Two thousand two hundred fifty-two patients were examined. Of 1,754 patients with negative dipstick screening, 353 patients (20.1%) had growth of ≥10(3) colony forming units. The dipstick test had a sensitivity of 0.442 and a specificity of 0.865 for the correct identification of urinary tract infection.

Dipstick screening is not sufficient to identify patients with urinary tract infection and symptoms of OAB.