Diagnostic stewardship cutoffs for urinalysis results prior to performing a urine culture: analysis of data from a healthcare system.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Urinary tract infections are commonly overdiagnosed. To minimize overdiagnosis, some laboratories utilize reflex algorithms that use urinalyses as preliminary screening before potentially proceeding to urine culture. However, the optimal urinalysis cutoffs for this diagnostic stewardship intervention remain poorly defined.

Methods

We performed a retrospective, cross-sectional analysis from 2/1/21-1/31/23 in the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services healthcare system. We examined patient encounters in which urinalysis was ordered synchronously with urine culture. We categorized urine culture isolates as uropathogens or non-uropathogens. We calculated receiver operating characteristic curves of urinalysis parameters' ability, singularly or in combination,

SUBMITTER: Kupferwasser DK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12620065 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature