Diagnostic Accuracy of Urine Analysis (DR) in Suspicious Cases of Urinary Tract Infections by Taking Urine Culture as Gold Standard

Abstract

Background: Urinary tract infections (UTI) are one of common clinical condition encountered in various clinical settings. This the most common infection, typically diagnosed on the basis history and clinical examination endorsed by urine analysis and culture sensitivity. Timely diagnosis and treatment are crucial in management. For diagnosis of UTI, Urine culture is standard, as it provide detail information for urinary pathogens, but it has certain disadvantages e.g. urine culture is costly, takes longer time, and up to 60-80% of the results are negative. Objective: To determine the diagnostic accuracy of urinalysis (Urine DR) in detection of urinary tract infection (UTI) among suspected cases of UTI by taking urine culture as gold standard. Materials And Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted at study was conducted at Department of Urology, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) Karachi, from march 2021 to September 2021. All patients who visited to JPMC Karachi and fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were included in the study after getting Informed consent. All patients were evaluated by urinalysis and urine culture. The results of urinalyses were recorded and compared with the results obtained on subsequent urine cultures. All of the specimens were obtained by the “clean-catch” method. All data and results were recorded on proforma and used electronically for research purpose. Results: Mean ± SD of age was 52.6±8.5 years. In distribution of gender, 60 (53.1%) patients were male while 53 (46.9%) were female patients. Diagnostic accuracy of urinalysis was 73.45% in diagnosis of urinary tract infection with sensitivity 76.47%, specificity 72.15% PPV 54.17% and NPV was found to be 87.69% by using urine culture findings as gold standard. Conclusion: It is to be concluded that evaluating of urinary tract infection (UTI) with urinalysis (Urine DR) did not prove helpful and comparable to urine culture. Urine culture should be done in each and every suspected case of UTI. Keywords: Bacteriuria, Diagnostic Accuracy, Sensitivity, Specificity, Urinalysis