Correlation of urinary tract infection with urinary screening at the first antepartum visit

Urinary tract infection contributes to the morbidity of pregnancy since 4-10 percent of antepartum patients have asymptomatic bacteriuria and 20-40 percent of these will result in pyelonephritis. A cost-effective outpatient assessment for asymptomatic bacteriuria in undelivered obstetric patients is described. In this study, 56 patients between 6-24 weeks gestation were assessed over a seven-month period by photometric urinary screening. This assessment was more accurate in identifying those patients with asymptomatic bacteriuria than prior history or symptoms. A 7 percent incidence of asymptomatic bacteriuria was noted with 75 percent being Escherichia coli and the remainder Klebsiella. Single-dose, oral antibiotic therapy was evaluated and resulted in no recurrences. Such screening for asymptomatic bacteriuria was felt to represent preventive and economic medical benefits.