Evaluation of the pneumococcal urinary antigen test (PUT): a retrospective study.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the usefulness of the pneumococcal urinary antigen test (PUT) and to describe the characteristics of pneumococcal pneumonia. METHODS: In this retrospective study, we examined the effects of prior antibiotic treatment, pneumonia onset period, and sputum quality on the results of PUT. Clinical information was collected via medical records from all adult patients who were hospitalized at the Fujita Health University Bantane Hospital with "pneumonia" as a new diagnosis from April 2015 to March 2018. RESULTS: =0.367). CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed that urinary antigen testing for pneumococcal pneumonia is useful for diagnosis regardless of prior antibiotic treatment and time since symptom onset.