Impact of availability of PA-100 AST System rapid antibiotic susceptibility test on antibiotic prescription when compared to current practice in Spanish primary care settings for community-acquired urinary tract infections

The study compared the impact of the PA-100 AST System with the standard of care on antibiotic prescription behaviour for the treatment of community acquired urinary tract infections in a Spanish primary care setting. Healthcare seeking women with symptoms of uncomplicated urinary tract infections were recruited based on their regional personal identification number in a control or intervention arm and differences in antibiotic prescription behaviour was investigated using Fisher’s exact test. Availability of the PA-100 AST revealed resistance against fosfomycin in 21.5% of confirmed infections. This significantly changed the antibiotic prescription behaviour away from fosfomycin towards nitrofurantoin and amoxycillin/clavulanic acid (p < 0.001). In accordance with local guidelines, fosfomycin represented the most frequent antibiotic prescribed in the control arm (65.9%), while a significantly lower prescription rate of 37.7% was observed in the intervention arm. This demonstrates the potential of the PA-100 AST to reduce further spread of antimicrobial resistance, by prescribing targeted antibiotic treatments from the first visit, and improve the care provided to patients in primary care settings.