Target situation:
(1) outpatient care
(2) woman with irritative voiding symptoms
(3) urinary culture results not available
Irritative voiding symptoms were not listed but are presumed to include:
(1) frequency
(2) urgency
(3) dysuria
Recurrent UTI was defined as >= 3 positive urine cultures in the preceding year.
Findings seen in women with recurrent UTI:
(1) symptoms after intercourse (odds ratio 12.4)
(2) history of pyelonephritis (odds ratio 7.4)
(3) history of prompt resolution of symptoms with antibiotics (odds ratio 3.9)
(4) absence of nocturia (odds ratio of nocturia 0.2, so absence should be 5)
Observations:
(1) No mention was made of urinalysis findings (pyuria, bacteriuria, etc).
(2) No mention is made of fever or other signs of a significant UTI.
(3) No mention of a history of numerous urinary tract infections.
(4) It is a little unclear if the goal was to identify women who are at risk for recurrent UTI or those with an active UTI.
The main use of this information appears to be for the triage of women in an outpatient setting into low and high risk groups for UTI when there are irritative symptoms, no laboratory data and the person is not obviously infected.
