UNASSIGNED: The aim of this study was to elicit clinicians\' perspectives to help reduce antibiotic prescribing for asymptomatic bacteriuria and improve a patient-centered educational brochure for older adults with urinary tract infections or asymptomatic bacteriuria.
UNASSIGNED: Between October 2023 and April 2024, we conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews of clinicians who treat patients aged ≥65 years for urinary tract infections or bacteria in the urine, at infectious disease clinics, community senior living facilities, memory care clinics, and general practice. We developed an interview guide based on a behavior change framework and thematically analyzed written transcripts of audio-recorded interviews using inductive and deductive coding techniques.
UNASSIGNED: We identified several common themes surrounding management of asymptomatic bacteriuria from clinicians. These included an emphasis on ordering and interpreting urine tests, tension between guidelines and individual patient care for older adults, use of epidemiologic data to influence prescribing practices, pre-prepared communication talking points, and interest in educational materials for patients and clinical teams.
UNASSIGNED: Education about the need for symptoms to supplement urine testing, data about the impact of overuse of antibiotics, and oral and written communication strategies should be addressed to reduce antibiotic prescribing for asymptomatic bacteriuria.

CONCLUSIONS: In an effort to expedite the publication of articles, AJHP is posting manuscripts online as soon as possible after acceptance. Accepted manuscripts have been peer-reviewed and copyedited, but are posted online before technical formatting and author proofing. These manuscripts are not the final version of record and will be replaced with the final article (formatted per AJHP style and proofed by the authors) at a later time.
OBJECTIVE: Asymptomatic bacteriuria is often inappropriately treated, leading to antimicrobial-related adverse events and contributing to antimicrobial resistance. This study examined the asymptomatic bacteriuria treatment rate at a rural Wisconsin health system and the patient-specific factors that may be influencing clinicians\' decisions to treat.
METHODS: This is a retrospective descriptive report of patients admitted from January to May 2022 at 7 rural Wisconsin hospitals. Patients were included if they were a hospitalized adult with asymptomatic bacteriuria. Patients were excluded if they had a urinary tract abnormality, active infection, symptoms of a urinary tract infection, a planned urological surgery, or treatment or prophylaxis for a urinary tract infection within 72 hours of admission, were immunocompromised, or were transferred from an outside facility. Electronic and manual chart abstraction were used for data collection.
RESULTS: Of 429 patients with a positive urine culture, 137 patients with asymptomatic bacteriuria were included in the study. The median age was 75 years, and most patients were female (80.3%). The treatment rate of asymptomatic bacteriuria was 78.1%, amounting to 393 days of unnecessary antimicrobial therapy. Symptoms of fatigue (P = 0.014) and altered mentation (P < 0.006) and urinalysis results of nitrite positivity (P = 0.026) and pyuria (P < 0.001) were each independently associated with antimicrobial treatment.
CONCLUSIONS: Despite guideline recommendations to avoid treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria, treatment rates in rural hospitalized patients remain high. Nonspecific signs and symptoms of altered mentation and fatigue as well as laboratory findings of nitrite positivity and pyuria were factors associated with a decision to treat. Future stewardship efforts should speak to the poor specificity of these factors.

Periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) is a significant issue in orthopedic surgery. Urinary tract infections (UTIs) and asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB) have been identified as potential causes of PJI; however, evidence is inconclusive. Understanding these relationships is critical for improving therapy and patient outcomes. A systematic review was performed by conducting searches from PubMed, EBSCO, ProQuest, and manual searching with adherence to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis 2020 guideline. Studies that reported UTI/ASB and PJI were included. Meta-analysis was conducted using a random-effects model using RevMan 5.4 software. A total of 14 studies were included with UTIs and ASB showed an overall association with increased risk of PJI (odds ratio [OR]: 1.84, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.14-2.99, P = 0.01). However, subgroup analysis for UTIs and ASB was not significant. Further analysis of UTIs in total hip arthroplasty (THA) surgery showed a significant association (OR: 1.76, 95% CI: 1.57-1.96) with PJI. Preoperative UTIs timing between 0 and 2 weeks before surgery showed an increased risk of PJI (OR: 1.45, 95% CI: 1.35-1.55). Antibiotic treatment in ASB did not significantly impact PJI rates. Urine and PJI sample cultures in four studies showed no correlation of microorganisms between the two sites. According to recent evidence, a statistically significant association was found between UTIs and PJI in patients who underwent THA surgery. However, ASB did not yield significant results in relation to PJI. These results should be supported by larger and well-designed studies to make proper clinical suggestion in future. For further research, it is recommended to adopt standardized criteria for outcome measurement and to involve larger sample sizes to enhance the reliability and generalizability of findings.

Urinary tract infections (UTI) are an important clinical problem in kidney transplant recipients (KTR). Asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB) is frequent in these patients and often resolved by the immune system, but a significant proportion may progress to complicated UTI, which may compromise allograft function and survival. It is essential to determine the involvement of the immune system in the infectious process. Dendritic cells (DCs) are recognised as playing a pivotal role in initiating inflammatory responses capable of priming antigen-specific T cells, a crucial step in determining the fate of local inflammation. Little is known about their role in the control of UTI. In this brief communication, we report an incidental finding in a group of 16 stable KTR in which monocyte-derived dendritic cells (ModDCs), analysed by flow cytometry, were found in urine of patients with ASB and high bacterial counts >107 cfu/ml. Within this group, one patient developed pyelonephritis in the following days. These findings suggest that the immune system, in particular DCs, may be recruited during the course of a UTI and, to our knowledge, present for the first time evidence that inflammatory ModDCs can be detected in urine. Their frequency may reflect the degree of infection. This finding suggests the potential for exploring whether these cells may be useful in distinguishing between pathogenic ASB and those that can be resolved by the immune system.

UNASSIGNED: Our research aimed to study the microbiology and antimicrobial resistance in asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB) among Omani pregnant women.
UNASSIGNED: We conducted a retrospective study that included data from 196 Omani pregnant women with ASB who received care at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital from 2010-2019. Data were obtained from the patients\' electronic medical records including demographics, clinical details, isolated organisms, antimicrobial susceptibility results, and prescribed antibiotics.
UNASSIGNED: ASB was detected in 56.1% of cases during the third trimester. Klebsiella pneumoniae(32.1%) was the most frequently isolated organism, followed by Escherichia coli (29.6%). Twenty-one (10.7%) isolates were extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing organisms. The overall microbiological susceptibility pattern showed that organisms have a high susceptibility rate to nitrofurantoin reaching 82.8%, followed to a lesser extent by cefuroxime and augmentin. The susceptibility of E. coli and K. pneumoniae to cefuroxime was 74.1% and 71.4%, respectively. Only 52.4% of all isolated ESBL-producing organisms were susceptible to nitrofurantoin.
UNASSIGNED: K. pneumoniae and E. coli were the most frequently isolated bacteria in ASB, representing 60.7% of total isolates. A high prevalence of ESBL-producing organisms, 10.7% of the total isolates, was observed. Cefuroxime is an appropriate empirical antibacterial therapy for ASB and urinary tract infection in pregnant women. Nitrofurantoin should be considered for empirical antibiotic therapy in settings of high prevalence of ESBL-producing organisms.

Infection management in solid organ transplantation poses unique challenges, with a diverse array of potential pathogens and associated antimicrobial therapies. With limited high-quality randomized clinical trials to direct optimal care, therapeutic \"myths\" may propagate and contribute to suboptimal or excessive antimicrobial use. We discuss 6 therapeutic myths with particular relevance to solid organ transplantation and provide recommendations for infectious diseases clinicians involved in the care of this high-risk population.

UNASSIGNED: Current guidelines recommend screening and treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria prior to all urological surgeries breaching the mucosa. But little evidence supports this recommendation. At the least, risk stratification for postoperative UTI to support this strategy is lacking. The aim of this study was to define the associated factors for postoperative febrile infectious complications (UTI or surgical site infection) in urological surgery.
UNASSIGNED: We conducted a retrospective, multicentric study including all consecutive patients undergoing any urological surgery with preoperative urine culture. The primary outcome was the occurrence of a UTI or surgical site infection occurring within 30 days after surgery.
UNASSIGNED: From 2016 to 2023, in 10 centers, 2389 patients were included with 838 (35%) positive urine cultures (mono-/bi-/polymicrobial). Postoperative infections occurred in 106 cases (4.4%), of which 44 had negative urine cultures (41%), 42 had positive mono-/bimicrobial urine cultures (40%), and 20 had polymicrobial urine cultures (19%). In multivariable analysis, UTI during the previous 12 months of surgery (odds ratio [OR] 3.43; 95% CI 2.07-5.66; P < .001), monomicrobial/bimicrobial preoperative urine culture (OR 3.68; 95% CI 1.57-8.42; P = .002), polymicrobial preoperative urine culture (OR 2.85; 95% CI 1.52-5.14; P < .001), and operative time (OR 1.09; 95% CI 1.04-1.15; P < .001) were independent associated factors for postoperative febrile infections.
UNASSIGNED: Positive urine culture, including preoperative polymicrobial urine culture, prior to urological surgery was associated with postoperative infection. Additionally, patients experiencing infectious complications also had a higher incidence of other complications. The effectiveness of systematic preventive antibiotic therapy for a positive urine culture has not been conclusively established.

Traditional bacteriocin screening methods often face limitations due to diffusion-related challenges in agar matrices, which can prevent the peptides from reaching their target organism. Turbidimetric techniques offer a solution to these issues, eliminating diffusion-related problems and providing an initial quantification of bacteriocin efficacy in producer organisms. This study involved screening the cell-free supernatant (CFS) from eight uncharacterized asymptomatic bacteriuria (ABU) isolates and Escherichia coli 83972 for antimicrobial activity against clinical uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) strains using turbidimetric growth methods. ABU isolates exhibiting activity against five or more UPEC strains were further characterized (PUTS 37, PUTS 58, PUTS 59, S-07-4, and SK-106-1). The inhibition of the CFS by proteinase K suggested that the antimicrobial activity was proteinaceous in nature, potentially bacteriocins. The activity of E. coli PUTS 58 and SK-106-1 was enhanced in an artificial urine medium, with both inhibiting all eight UPECs. A putative microcin H47 operon was identified in E. coli SK-106-1, along with a previously identified microcin V and colicin E7 in E. coli PUTS 37 and PUTS 58, respectively. These findings indicate that ABU bacteriocin-producers could serve as viable prophylactics and therapeutics in the face of increasing antibiotic resistance among uropathogens.

UNASSIGNED: There is a paucity of studies on asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB) among kidney transplant recipients (KTR) in developing countries. This study assessed the clinical profile, risk factors, outcomes, and impact of treatment of ASB in KTRs with a normal genitourinary tract.
UNASSIGNED: Consecutive KTRs from 2009 to 2018 with no clinical or radiological evidence of obstructive uropathy were included. Urinary tract infection (UTI) after ASB was defined as occurrence of cystitis, pyelonephritis, or urosepsis, with ASB being the first bacteriuric episode.
UNASSIGNED: Seven hundred ten out of 794 patients with median follow up of 47 months were included. The mean age was 35.5 ± 12 years. Eighty-one patients (11.4%) developed ASB at a median of 25 days (IQR 10, 134.5). Fifty-three percent and 4.9% of ASB episodes were extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) positive and carbapenem-resistant organisms, respectively. Eighteen patients (32.1%) with early ASB (<3 months) and 5 (20%) with late ASB developed UTI on follow-up. Fifty-five percent of early and 16% of late ASB episodes were treated, with no significant difference observed in the risk of development of UTI when compared to untreated ASB episodes.
UNASSIGNED: The incidence of ASB as first bacteriuric episode in our cohort was 11.4%, with there being significant antimicrobial resistance. Female gender, pretransplant UTI, and delayed graft function were independently associated with development of ASB. Treatment of ASB episodes either early or late did not decrease the risk of development of UTI.

Emergency medicine has been called the art of \"making complicated clinical decisions with limited information.\" This description is particularly relevant in the case of diagnosis and treatment of urinary tract infections (UTIs). Although common, UTIs are often challenging to diagnose given the presence of non-specific signs and symptoms and over-reliance on laboratory findings. This review provides an interdisciplinary interpretation of the primary literature and practice guidelines, with a focus on diagnostic and antimicrobial stewardship in the emergency department.