Cystitis: symptomatology in women with suspected uncomplicated urinary tract infection.

Background: Although cystitis in women is very common in general practice, its evolution in symptoms has not been clearly studied. Qualitative research has pointed to other than the classic symptomatology.

Methods: This was a prospective observational study of the symptomatology at presentation and the evolution of the symptoms in treated women with suspected uncomplicated urinary tract infection (UTI).

Evolution of bacterial susceptibility pattern of Escherichia coli in uncomplicated urinary tract infections in a country with high antibiotic consumption: a comparison of two surveys with a 10 year interval.

Objectives: For the empirical treatment of cystitis, clinicians are often guided by susceptibility data taken from urinary samples that sent to regional microbiological laboratories, which are not representatives for uncomplicated urinary tract infections (UTIs). To offer adequate recommendations, the distribution and susceptibility pattern of uropathogens in uncomplicated UTIs in women were compared with those obtained 10 years ago in our uropathogen surveillance in a primary healthcare setting.

Methods: Sixty-six general practitioners in the region of the city of Ghent were asked to inoculate a dipslide with midstream urine from every adult female patient with complaints suggestive for cystitis, during a period of 1 year.

Guidelines, evidence, and cultural factors.

Objective: To compare four recent guidelines on uncomplicated cystitis and to examine how cultural factors may have affected recommendations.

Design: Descriptive study with a qualitative analysis of authors' reasons for recommendations.

Material: Guidelines for general practitioners published 1999-2000 from Germany, The Netherlands, Norway, and Belgium on diagnosis and treatment of uncomplicated cystitis.