Week 2: Urinary Tract Infections

Urinary tract infections are the most common bacterial infection and can affect people of all ages and both sexes. UTIs are more common in females and in women of child-bearing age. UTIs are also the most common infectious complication in pregnant women. Types of UTIs include asymptomatic, pyelonephritis, urethritis, cystitis, and acute urethral syndrome.

Click on the following link for more information on the types of urinary tract infections, symptoms and treatment options.
More info on UTIs

Urine collection should be done in the early morning in a sterile screw capped cup or a tube containing preservative. There are several different methods that can be used to collect the specimen. A clean catch midstream (CCMS) is the most common method used because it is easy to collect and noninvasive. However contamination can occur unless collected properly. Straight catherization can be used to collect the urine with less contamination however it is more invasive and can introduce bacteria to the patient and lead to nosocomial infections. Collection from an indwelling catheter is a noninvasive method but has a high risk of contamination of the specimen. Colleting urine via suprapubic aspiration is the most reliable method because there is no contamination and it can also be used to culture for anaerobes. However this is a highly invasive procedure and can have associated risks.

After collection rapid screening tests can be done such as a gram stain, detection of pyuria, chemical tests (nitrate reduction and leukocyte esterase production), and colorimetry. If the screening tests give positive results for bacteria, a urine culture should be done and colony count should be conducted for each isolate to determine the significance. Direct tests can then be used to determine the identity of the organisms.