Is An Urine Exam Necessary to Determine a UTI?

When some males are suspected as a potential sufferer of a urinary tract infection(UTI), they are often requested to do urine exam so that the doctor can determine the emergence of bacteria. But recent research suggests this exam may be not needed.

Research found that about one-quarter of women who had signs of urinary tract infection, which means they are suffering from the problem of burning when urinating or of frequent and urgent urination, had no bacteria in their urine or in their bladders. And although a variety of different bacteria could be found in a number of urine culture exams, only e.coli could be found in both the urine exam and the bladder. Urinary tract infection is common bacterial infections, taking up nearly ten million cases of urinary tract infection in America each year, according to the research data.

"Our research provides further evidence that midstream urine cultures don't need to be done. Most labs don't quantify low enough unless you specifically ask them to. Most women are cured right away for symptoms anyway, since the urine culture doesn't come back for two days," explained the group’s leading author, Dr. Huge, a professor of medicine in the Florida University.

These findings indicate that urine exam may not be accurate sufficiently to figure out very small quantities of bacteria in the bladder and it needs to be refined if it continues to be used in clinical practice. The symptoms may not be invited by infections in the bladder, but by an infection in the urethra. And maybe the inflammation in the urethra is able to lead to the symptoms, instead of bacteria.

On condition that the physician decides to cure you without asking for a urine sample to culture, that's reasonable, said the author of an accompanying journal editorial, Dr. Michael, a professor of medicine, microbiology and immunology. But he noted that this research raises massive questions as well.

"Do bacteria in the urethra give rise to symptoms? And, if they do, does curing them make the symptoms go away sooner? A short course of antibiotics is likely to be effective, and that it's important to keep studying urinary tract infections and we need to know more about exactly what results in symptoms." he added.

More researches are needed when antibiotics can react on the urinary tract infection and when they're not to reduce potentially unnecessary antibiotic use due to the concerns about growing antibiotic resistance. Experts also noted that antibiotics are not the only medicine that can help to deal with urinary tract infection, and there are other medicines like herbal medicine Diuretic and Anti-inflammation Pill can reach on it effectively without any drug resistance or side effects.