Skip Navigation


JAC Advance Access originally published online on April 21, 2007
Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 2007 59(6):1200-1203; doi:10.1093/jac/dkm108
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
59/6/1200    most recent
dkm108v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by O'Brien, K.
Right arrow Articles by Butler, C.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by O'Brien, K.
Right arrow Articles by Butler, C.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

An observational study of empirical antibiotics for adult women with uncomplicated UTI in general practice

Kathryn O'Brien1,*, Sharon Hillier1, Sharon Simpson1, Kerenza Hood2 and Christopher Butler1

1 Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Cardiff University, 3rd Floor Neuadd Meirionnydd, Heath Park, Cardiff CF14 4XN, UK 2 South East Wales Trials Unit, Neuadd Meirionnydd, Heath Park, Cardiff CF14 4XN, UK

Received 3 October 2006; returned 12 January 2007; revised 16 March 2007; accepted 21 March 2007

* Corresponding author. Tel: +44-29-2068-7173/029-2068-7148; Fax: +44-29-2068-7219; E-mail: obrienka{at}cf.ac.uk

Objectives: Women presenting in primary care with symptoms suggestive of uncomplicated urinary tract infection (UTI) are commonly managed without urine culture. We therefore do not know how successful general practitioners (GPs) are at targeting antibiotic treatment to women who would have had a microbiologically confirmed UTI, or at avoiding antibiotics in those who would have had a negative culture, had all patients with a suspected UTI been sampled. We therefore explored the association between antibiotic prescribing and urine culture results when culture was performed in all symptomatic patients.

Methods: GPs in nine general practices in South Wales were asked to submit urine specimens from all women consulting with clinically suspected, uncomplicated UTI. Patients were followed up 2 weeks later by questionnaire.

Results and conclusions: One hundred and thirteen adult women with a median age of 54 years were included and 61% received empirical antibiotics. There was very low agreement between the decision to prescribe empirically and subsequent culture result (Kappa = 0.04), with 60% of those prescribed empirical antibiotics subsequently found to have a negative culture, and 25% of those found to have a positive culture not prescribed empirical antibiotics. Current strategies to target empirical antibiotic prescribing in clinically suspected, uncomplicated UTI require review.

Keywords: urinary tract infections , cystitis , urine culture , empirical antibiotics


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.