Introduction: This study aims to examine Hounsfield bladder urine in a non-contrast CT scan with positive urinary culture to diagnose urinary tract infections in patients referred to Ayatollah Taleghani and Labbafinezhad Hospital in Tehran.
Method: The present research is a cross-sectional study to specify the correlation of urine bladder urine in non-contrast CT scans with positive urinary culture to diagnose urinary tract infection in patients referred to Ayatollah Taleghani and Labbafinezhad Hospital in Tehran in 2022. Patients who were hospitalized with complaints of urinary symptoms and acute abdominal pain, according to laboratory criteria, were diagnosed with a urinary tract infection and underwent a CT scan of the abdomen without injection, were included in the study. The required information in the field of Hounsfield number determination was obtained through radiological studies. Part of the necessary information was obtained from patients' files and from radiological studies.
Result: One hundred nine patients participated in this research; 52 (47.7%) were women. The mean age of the patients was 55.82 ± 17.60 years. Fifty-three people (48.6%) had positive urine culture. The average attenuation value in cases with positive culture was -7.37±5.66, and in cases with negative culture was 8.22±5.00 (P=0.0001). According to ROC curve analysis, the attenuation value's calculated cutoff point for predicting the urine culture's positivity was -3. Therefore, for predicting the positivity of urine culture, the sensitivity rate of the attenuation value was about 82.1%, and the specificity was 81.1% (AUC: 0.91, P-value<0.0001). Forty-three patients with an attenuation value less than negative 3 had positive Urine culture (P=0.0001). The neutrophil average was 73.50±16.38 in patients with attenuation value ≤− 3 and 68.25±12.58 in patients with attenuation value >−3 (P=0.010). Also, the relationship between the distribution of attenuation value with a negative cutoff value of 3 and the distribution of positive and negative cultures of patients was significant (P=0.0001). Also, the relationship between the distribution of attenuation value with a negative cutoff value of 3 and the distribution of leukocyte esterase in the patients was significant (P=0.002).
Conclusion: The measurement of attenuation in the specific bladder area can be a valuable tool in diagnosing urinary tract infections with high accuracy without incurring extra costs. Additional investigations are required to verify the outcomes.