Stewarding the inappropriate diagnosis and treatment of urinary tract infection: leveraging the urinalysis to understand true antibiotic overuse.

Abstract

We evaluated 249 asymptomatic patients receiving antibiotics for urinary infection: 222 had asymptomatic pyuria and/or nitrituria (ASPN) and 133 had asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB, growth ≥10⁵ colony forming units/ml). ASPN identified 40% more cases of unnecessary antibiotics compared to ASB and may be a more comprehensive measure of unnecessary antibiotic use.