Evaluation of Screening Tests to Detect Asymptomatic Bacteriuria in Antenatal Women

Urinary tract infection is mainly a disease of the females, due to the anatomical structure of the female urethra (Shruthi et al., 2012; Lavanya et al., 2002). There are 2 types of urinary tract infection (UTI). They are asymptomatic and symptomatic urinary tract infection (Sujatha et al., 2004; Jeyaseelan et al., 2013; Annie et al., 2014). The definition of asymptomatic bacteriuria is the occurrence of actively multiplying bacteria, more than 10 5 bacteria per ml of urine inside the urinary tract, exclusive of the distal urethra at a time when the patient has nil symptoms of UTI (Santogita et al., 2013; Chandel et al., 2012). In pregnancy, urinary tract infections commonly occur, because of the physiological and morphological changes that occur in the genitourinary tract. In pregnant women, the occurence of asymptomatic bacteriuria was found to be 2% to 10%. The relatively increased occurence of asymptomatic bacteriuria, the consequences faced by the antenatal women, the ability to avoid undesirable outcomes with the management justifies the testing of asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnancy. Both International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 1 (2017) pp. 168-174 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com