Prevalence of Asymptomatic Bacteriuria in Antenatal pregnant women in tertiary hospitals

Background: The most common infections among all age groups are the urinary tract infections, mostly among pregnant women. Aim and Objective: To screen pregnant women for ASB with wet mount, reagent strip test such as UROCOLOR 10, by which both nitrite and leukocyte esterase was detected. Materials and methods: This was a multi-centric study conducted at Government Hospital Nizamabad and CKM hospital, Warnagal. 150 pregnant women in the age group of 18-40 years without any symptoms of UTI were selected. Control group consisted of 75 non pregnant women who had no signs of UTI and who were within the age group of 18-40 years. Informed consent was taken from all the subjects who participated in the study after explaining the study details in the respective mother's tongue. All the pregnant women without signs and symptoms of UTI were included. Results: Out of 150 pregnant women, 128 (85%) were sterile, in 15% (22), pure growth of organisms in significant numbers >105 CFU/ml were obtained. There was no growth contamination in any of the urine samples. Wet film had highest specificity of 95% and least sensitivity of 35%, Leukocyte esterase had high specificity of 92% and low sensitivity of 44%, and nitrite test had highest specificity of 97% and highest positive predictive value of 80%. Conclusion: UTI's are more common among pregnant women than non-pregnant women. ASB is present in 22% of antenatal women. This can be prevented by earlier diagnosis and proper antimicrobial treatment in women and thus prevent obstetric complications. Culture is the standard test, but it is time consuming and very expensive, none is 100 % sensitive even though many screening tests are available now. Leukocyte esterase and nitrite test are a rapid and inexpensive methods to rule out UTI in women. Wet film can also be used as an alternate screening method.