Asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnancy: what is the validity of urine sediment microscopy as a screening tool in a low resource setting?

Background: Asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnancy should be screened and treated to reduce the risk of morbidity and mortality. Urine culture is the recommended test. In low resource setting with large patient load urine culture in all pregnant patients is not feasible. In this study authors have assessed the validity of urine microscopy in the screening of asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnancy.Methods: Midstream clean catch urine specimen collected from 675 pregnant women was subjected to urine sediment microscopy and culture. It was considered screen positive if pus cells were >5/HPF. Asymptomatic bacteriuria was diagnosed if there were >/=100000 CFU of a single uropathogen per ml. Results obtained were statistically analysed for the prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria, sociodemographic and medical risk factors, causative organisms, antibiotic sensitivity and validity of urine sediment microscopy in detecting asymptomatic bacteriuria.Results: The incidence of asymptomatic bacteriuria in our study was 10.2%. The incidence was higher in the age group between 20-30 years, in gravida 3 and above, in upper lower and lower socioeconomic status, in women with hyperglycemia in pregnancy and anaemia. E. coli was the commonest bacterial isolate in culture positive cases. Bacterial isolates had poor sensitivity for Ampicillin, amoxicillin and nitrofurantoin and good sensitivity for cephalosporins and aminoglycosides. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values for urine microscopy was 43%, 85%, 25% and 93% respectively.Conclusions: This study shows poor sensitivity and positive predictive value and good specificity and negative predictive value.

Menstrual cup: awareness among reproductive women

Background: Menstrual cup is an alternative to sanitary pads, which has received attention in relatively small-scale studies in high income, and low- and middle-income countries, including among schoolgirls. Made of high-grade medical grade silicone (biodegradable) have the advantage of reuse, and can potentially last up to 10 years. Objective of this study was to assess and analyse the awareness regarding menstrual cup among the women of reproductive age group.Methods: Data collected from the selected eligible participants by an interviewer administered study proforma. It is a descriptive cross-sectional study over 1 month in women in reproductive age in A. J. Institute Mangalore, Karnataka, India.Results: A total 82% were aware about menstrual cup but only 2.6% have used it.Conclusions: One challenge of menstruation that is taken for granted in affluent countries is the simple question of how to manage or contain the menstrual flow and what happens to a girl or woman who is not able to do this successfully. Menstrual hygiene management is therefore an increasingly important (yet often unrecognized) issue that is heavily intertwined with girls’ education, empowerment, and social development.

Comparison Between Pap Smear and Via As Screening For Cervical Lesions.

An important reason for higher cervical cancer incidence in developing countries is lack of effective screening programs like pap smear, aimed at detecting precancerous conditions before they progress to invasive cancer. The potential difficulties in implementing cervical cytology based screening in low-resource settings have prompted the investigation of accuracy of alternative low technology tests such as Visual inspection with acetic acid application [VIA], Visual inspection with acetic acid application with magnification [VIAM], visual inspection on Lugol’s Iodine application [VILI] in early detection of cervical neoplasia .In our study we compared pap smear with VIA to study the accurarcy of VIA as it is simpler and easier technique to be used as screening in low resource settings. Aim: This is a hospital based descriptive, prospective study to evaluate validity of pap smear and VIA techniques as screening tests in identifying cervical lesions. Materials And Methods: After general and systemic examination as a routine,visual local pelvic examination including visualisation of cervix and vagina per speculum and the findings are documented in the proforma .Then VIA and pap smear are done in that order, if any of these tests are positive then cervical biopsy will be taken and further advise to the subject is given. Results: A total of 313 women were involved in the study. The sensitivity of pap smear is 54.5% specificity is 98.9% while that of VIA 95.4% and 97.9%respectively. We found that VIA accuracy was comparatively more than that of pap smear. Conclusion: In low resource settings, usefulness of VIA is more than that of pap smear. We suggest to perform VIA in all the women inspite of having pap smear facility to improve detection rate of cervical lesions and provide better patient councelling and treatment.