Asymptomatic Bacteriuria in Pregnancy: Prevalence & Diagnosis

Introduction:  Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the commonest infections occurring in the course of pregnancy. As Asymptomatic Bacteriuria (ASB) poses a major threat during pregnancy leading to both meternal and fetal adverse outcomes  it has become necessary to diagnose and treat this infection at the earliest . This study was taken up to estimate the prevalence of ASB among pregnant women, common pathogens causing it and their antibiogram, and to device an ideal screening method for detection of bacteriuria.

Materiails and methods: 500 pregnant women attending the ANC of MGMCRI, Pondicherry, were taken up for the study in a period of 1 year. Written consent and a brief history was obtained from the study subjects. The urine sample was collected and sent to the Microbiology laboratory for processing. The sample was then subjected to a wet mount examination, Dipstick testing (A10REAGENT STRIPS, RAPHA) and urine culture on Blood agar plate and CLED agar plate. The observations were noted, the isolates were identified by preliminary tests and basic biochemical tests and antibiotic sensitivity testing was done for the necessary isolates.

Results & Conclusion: Prevalence of ASB among pregnant women was 9%. The ideal screening method for diagnosis of ASB was urinary leucocytes detection with the commonest uropathogen being Escherichia coli.