Diagnostic uncertainty and urinary tract infection in the emergency department: a cohort study from a UK hospital.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Suspected urinary tract infection (UTI) syndromes are a common reason for empirical antibiotics to be prescribed in the Emergency Department (ED), but differentiating UTI from other conditions with a similar presentation is challenging. We investigated how often an ED diagnosis of UTI is confirmed clinically/microbiologically, and described conditions which present as UTI syndromes.

Methods

Observational study using electronic health records from patients who attended the ED with suspected UTI and had a urine sample submitted for culture. We compared the ED diagnosis to diagnosis at discharge from hospital (ICD-10 codes), and estimated the proportion of cases with clinical/microbiological evidence of UTI.

Results

Two hundred eighty nine patients had an ED d

SUBMITTER: Shallcross LJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7238572 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature