Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2017) 6(1): 168-174 168 Original Research Article http://dx.doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2017.601.021 Evaluation of Screening Tests to Detect Asymptomatic Bacteriuria in Antenatal Women K.V. Leela*, Thyagarajan Ravinder, S. Hemalatha, P. Prabha and K. Chandrasekaran Department of Microbiology, Govt. Kilpauk, Medical College and Hospital, Chennai- 600010, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction 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 Keywords Asymptomatic Bacteriuria, Urine Microscopy, Urine Culture, Leucocyte Esterase . Accepted: 12 December 2016 Available Online: 10 January 2017 Article Info The aim of the study was to compare the diagnostic performance of urine microscopy, leucocyte esterase and nitrite dipstick tests as screening tests for asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnancy with the gold standard urine culture. 1000 Antenatal women attending OPD at Govt. Kilpauk medical college were screened for asymptomatic bacteriuria and the bacteria isolated by culture .A count of > 10 5 colony-forming units of a single organism per millilitre of urine was taken as significant. Dipstick results were read as positive according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Asymptomatic bacteriuria was prevalent in 11.8% of the 1000 women who were evaluated in the study. Urine culture was the gold standard for the detection of asymptomatic bacteriuria. Gram’s stain of uncentrifuged urine was found to be the best among the screening tests which were evaluated. There was a higher prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria in the Ist Trimester (38.98%). Escherichia coli was the major isolate constituting 54(45.76%) followed by Staphylococcus aureus 21(17.8%).Among the screening tests, Gram stain of uncentrifuged urine is the better one and in addition with dip stick testing of Nitrite & Leucocyte esterase will increase the diagnostic performance. Though Screening at the earliest (first trimester) is better, screening in each trimester is equally important to reduce the complications associated with asymptomatic bacteriuria.