Podcast # 432: Hunting for UTIs

As many as 20% of women in assisted living have asymptomatic bacteriuria

This can present a diagnostic conundrum when seeing these patients in the emergency department, particularly for altered mental status and deciding whether to treat

True diagnosis of UTI in the emergency department is difficult as true diagnoses required culture results and repeated positive samples

Procalcitonin is an emerging biomarker that may be helpful in determining the presence of infection