Acute urinary tract infections in pregnancy.

Routine screening for pregnancy ASB followed by adequate therapy and urine culture surveillance are important preventative measures which should be practiced by all obstetric physicians. The considerable maternal morbidity associated with the development of acute pyelonephritis more than justifies the effort and expense necessary to implement screening methods for the detection of ASB. A variety of simplified culture techniques are available for office or clinic use which are inexpensive and correlate well with the more expensive standard bacteriologic methods employed by diagnostic laboratories.