Helene Skjøt-Arkil

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are a leading infectious cause of emergency department admission. Early UTI diagnosis is challenging, and a faster, preferably point-of-care urine analysis is necessary. We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of urine flow cytometry (UFC) and urine dipstick analysis (UDA) in identifying bacteriuria and UTIs. This study included adults suspected of an infection admitted to three Danish emergency departments. UFC and UDA were the index tests, and urine culture and an expert panel diagnosis were the reference tests. We used logistic regression and receiver operator characteristics curves to find each test’s optimal model and cut-off. We enrolled 966 patients and performed urine cultures on 786. Urine culture was positive in 337, and 200 patients were diagnosed with a UTI. The UFC model ruled out bacteriuria in 10.9% with a negative predictive value (NPV) of 94.6% and ruled out UTI in 38.6% with an NPV of 97.0%. UDA ruled out bacteriuria in 52.1% with an NPV of 79.2% and UTI in 52.8% with an NPV of 93.9%. Neither UFC nor UDA performed well in ruling out bacteriuria in our population. In contrast, both tests ruled out UTI safely and in clinically relevant numbers.

Background In suspected community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), chest CT is superior to the routinely obtained radiographs (CXR), but administers higher radiation doses. However, ultra-low-dose CT (ULDCT) has shown promising results. Purpose To compare radiation dose and image quality using standard and ULDCT protocols designed for a multicenter study encompassing three CT scanner models from GE, Canon, and Siemens. Material and methods Patients with suspected CAP were referred for non-contrast standard dose chest CT (NCCT) and ULDCT. Effective radiation dose and Contrast-to-Noise Ratio (CNR) was calculated. Results Mean effective doses were GE ( n = 10) 6.93 mSv in NCCT and 0.27 mSv in ULDCT; Canon ( n = 9) 3.48 in mSv NCCT and 1.11 mSv in ULDCT; Siemens ( n = 10) 2.85 mSv in NCCT and 0.45 mSv in ULDCT. CNR was reduced by 29–39% in ULDCT. Conclusion The proposed CT protocols yielded dose reductions of 96%, 68%, and 84% using a GE, Canon, and Siemens scanner, respectively.