Cystitis or Urinary Tract Infections are painful and sometimes incapacitating infections and we're committed to providing you with the information you need to help treat and prevent these infections. Did you know that most infections are caused by the E. Coli bacteria? Learn about that and more by clicking through this site and educating yourself. You know what they say. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Well, we have a pound of prevention, so just imagine what that's worth!How is a Urinary Tract Infection Diagnosed?
Aside from diagnosis from the analysis of symptoms the most common method for a physician to diagnose a UTI is with a urine sample. Most often a “midstream” sample is best and involves capturing the urine in a sterile cup “midstream.” This is to avoid bacteria from any other materials washing into the sample and contaminating the results. The process of testing the urine is known a urinalysis. If the patient has a non-urine like discharge it will typically be tested for STD such as Neisseria or Chlamydia.
Technically speaking a positive urinalysis may be about 15 bacteria per one high powered microscope field. It may also be considered positive by greater than one thousand bacteria cultured per milliliter or urine. There are other methods of detection or determination of an infection, but most clinicians will accept many of these as adequate for starting a treatment for a urinary tract infection.
In order for a test for UTI to be considered definitive the test will require isolating and identifying the pathogen at around one hundred thousand bacteria per cubic centimeter of urine. This test can take up to 48 hours and many health care providers will start treatment immediately, not waiting for the results.
In young children, the elderly, or infant the best sample is collected by catheterization. Sometime, a sample is collected using a bag which is placed over the genital area. At best these samples may be used for a presumptive analysis and many providers will not use this method as it’s reliability is questionable. Any urine sample not processed within an hour of colletion should be discarded (or refrigerated). This is because a false positive is common in room temperature urine after one hour.
In rare or special cases alternate tests such as a complete blood count, CT scan or special cultures for fungi or parasites may be performed.
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