What does bacteria in the urine mean

Merck Manual for Healthcare Professionals [On-line information]. Barclay, L. McCarter, Y. Burd, G. Hall, and M. Coordinating ed. Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine. MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. Urine culture, catheterized.

Accessed April Pagana, K. Urinary Tract Infections in Adults. Accessed October Bacterial Culture, Aerobic, Urine. Johnson, J. V 24 6 Updated February 1. Cystitis in Females. Graneto, J. Emergent Management of Pediatric Patients with Fever. Accessed December Updated Aug 19, July 23, Mayo Clinic.

Urine Culture. Also Known As. Formal Name. At a Glance. Why Get Tested? To diagnose a urinary tract infection UTI. When To Get Tested? Sample Required? Test Preparation Needed? What is being tested? For a urine culture, a small sample of urine is placed on one or more agar plates a thin layer of a nutrient media and incubated at body temperature.

Any bacteria or yeast that are present in the urine sample grow over the next 24 to 48 hours. A laboratory professional studies the colonies on the agar plate, counting the total number and determining how many types have grown. The size, shape, and color of these colonies help to identify which bacteria are present, and the number of colonies indicates the quantity of bacteria originally present in the urine sample.

The quantity can differentiate between normal levels of bacteria versus infection. Ideally, if a good clean catch sample was collected for the test, only bacteria causing a UTI are present. Typically, this will be a single type of bacteria that will be present in relatively large numbers.

Sometimes, more than one type of bacteria will be present. This may be due to an infection that involves more than one pathogen; however, it is more likely due to skin, vaginal, or fecal contamination picked up during the urine collection.

Well, it sounds like your mother had gallstones in her bile duct. This can cause belly pain, and can also cause jaundice if the bile duct is completely blocked. The treatment in this case is removal of the gallstone through an ERCP procedure which is a type of endoscopy, so they put a tube down the mouth and into the stomach and beyond, which is where the bile duct drains out.

When we culture urine due to concern for a UTI, the goal is to have urine that has not been contaminated by bacteria outside the body. It sounds like you Mom should be sent to see a Uro-gynecologist. This can create urinary retention and help grow UTI infections. Low Estrogen states mean the genito-urinary pH changes, allowing infection to grow.

My Uro-gynecologist Rxs estrogen vaginal cream to women with these issues. Excellent and timely article. As a clinical laboratory director for forty years, I applaud your clarification on the treatment of bacteriuria vs.

As a son caring for his 92 year old Mom, I found your explanation invaluable. Thank you! Can you tell us what the likely complications are of an untreated, bona fide UTI? Untreated UTIs can turn into pyelonephritis infection of the kidney or sepsis bacteria in the bloodstream and severe generalized illness. In this article I describe the true story of one of my 93 year old patients, who almost died of urosepsis: A Trial of ICU Care: a true end-of-life story.

Now how likely is it that an untreated UTI will turn into pyelonephritis or urosepsis? In younger women, delayed treatment of antibiotics for UTI has been studied. For women who delayed treatment by a week, many of them experienced improvement or resolution of their UTI symptoms.

This is a choice that some people prefer when they are quite impaired by a terminal illness, such as dementia or end-stage lung disease, for instance. If the goals of care are no longer to prolong life, then we might not treat a UTI unless it appears to be quite painful , and in this case, some patients will recover and others will get worse.

Maybe u can help me. NOW it hurts like crazy when I urinate. But I got moderate amount of sediment coming thru me. Foul smell dk urine. Macrobid makes the stream better an the frequency of going. When done with Macrobid it all comes back. It sounds like it might not be clear to your doctors what is causing your pain. You may want to try seeing a specialist in urology.

You may also want to ask if you might have interstitial cystitis , which is a chronic painful bladder syndrome. Can bacteria form or multiply in urine samples several days old prior to being analyzed? How important is freshness in a sample? Hm, I have never heard of the lab culturing a sample that is several days old. Presumably the sample should be fresh, because otherwise there is increased risk of contamination from outside sources.

So perhaps you were having symptoms and hence a real UTI, as opposed to asymptomatic bacteriuria. In terms of the possibility of developing sepsis: asymptomatic bacteriuria can turn into a UTI, and that can lead to sepsis. Part of this is probably because the body is designed to either live with or fight off bacteria.

My question is? Do I have a problem? Except mucus and I am totally confused? I would recommend consulting with a specialist with experience in immune conditions.

They would be able to review why you were diagnosed with this condition, and offer a second opinion. Regarding the urinary issues, you may want to get a second opinion for those. Your information was helpful on bacteria in the urine. However you did not give any symptoms. I have been dealing with constant urination, to the point where it gushes out.

I at times have pain. Have had culters and nothing grows. Am taking d-mannose, cranberry pills and it is good one day and back the next. Have had meds for uti until it continued and the tests were run. It sounds like you have some pretty significant urinary symptoms but your urine culture is negative, so you have neither a UTI nor asymptomatic bacteriuria. I would encourage you to be persistent in asking your doctors to explain what they think is the cause of your urinary frequency and pain.

There are many non-bacterial problems that can cause frequency and pain. Normally a good pelvic exam would be indicated in this situation, to see if your symptoms might be related to the position or condition of your uterus. So i just got a full body check up and my doctor did some blood tests and a urine test also. My doctor told me that there was a little bit of bacteria in my urine test and she told me that she will do a pap smear on the next visit before looking into the bacteria in my urine since at that time i was on my menstral cycle.

So I did a pap smear and got a respond on the results three weeks later saying that everything was fine and that they prescribed something for the bacteria. Im 37 years old and since my pregnancy 2 years ago i been having weird menstrual cycles.

Not sure if thats useful information but there it is. Im not sure what to do. In fact, even in women with UTI symptoms, a certain number of them get better without antibiotics, see here: Women with symptoms of uncomplicated urinary tract infection are often willing to delay antibiotic treatment: a prospective cohort study. I would recommend that you talk more with your doctor about this issue. What you are describing sounds like it might be asymptomatic bacteriuria, so it would be reasonable to ask the doctor why he or she feels antibiotic treatment is necessary.

In the past month, there have been changes in her behavior, such as screaming, hollering for help, agression toward the aides who are trying to clean or toilet her, refusing meds and pushing away things that come close to her face, constantly holding her lower abdomen and drawing her legs toward her body.

Ie TV, laundry, lunch. They also did labs. Her BUN was high. Urine had bacteria but they said it was not enough for antibiotic and some was from her skin. I saw the sample which looked like it had clouds of a darker color. I feel so helpless. She appears to be in pain and very distressed.

What can i do to help her? Sorry to hear that your mother seems to be in pain and distressed. Other problems to consider include diverticulitis , gallstones, a tumor or other mass, blockages in the arteries that nourish the bowels, and much more.

Do make sure they have ruled out constipation as a cause. Ask them what abnormalities were seen on the labs, and what they think might be causing her belly pain. For belly pain we also often draw tests related to liver function and sometimes pancreas function, as this can help us determine whether the person might be suffering from gallstones or pancreatitis. For some people with dementia in nursing homes, the care plan is to minimize hospitalization and procedures, because the goal is to prioritize comfort and avoid medical care that is often burdensome to people with dementia.

Regarding a high BUN, this is often associated with decreased kidney function. What she does need is a careful evaluation to figure out what might be causing her pain, and then treatment tailored to that cause. In my own practice, I consider low doses of opioid painkillers when an older person is having a lot of pain, but this usually requires adding or increasing any laxative treatment, to avoid worsening any constipation. My mother-in-law is 93 and has re-occurring diagnosis of UTI.

She also has early symptoms of dementia which makes her reporting suspect. For years her doctor prescribed daily low-level antibiotics. In the past year with a new doctor, that was stopped and now she reports symptoms, a urine sample is taken and she is diagnosed with e-coli in the sample so another round of antibiotics is prescribed.

Now with a new doctor, he is prescribing continuoius low-level antibiotics again. Her daughters have talked to her about hygiene , drinking water, etc… I was confused by the term asymptomatic bacteriuria.

Does that include e-coli? What is your opinion about continuous low-level anti-biotics? Thank you in advance,. Given that she has dementia and is perhaps frail as well, her doctors will have trouble determining whether she is having a clinically significant UTI or not. The term asymptomatic bacteriuria certainly encompasses E. Pretty much any bacteria that shows up on a positive urine culture can colonize the bladder of an older person. In terms of continuous low-level antibiotics: they can reduce recurrent UTIs in younger women, but this has not been confirmed in women aged 80s or 90s.

The practice of many geriatricians is to not check a urine culture, once a person has shown signs of having a colonized bladder.

Instead, we would only check if there were true UTI symptoms e. These are sterile specimens. He has had fever, increased altered mental status, back pain, abdominal pain, testicular pain, dysuria. BID x 7 days. In September: Gentamycin 80 mg. I am so sad; as I am concerned the infection will come back. It does sounds like he has a lot of risk factors and his immune system is probably weakened, so that does put him at risk for future infections.

If he keeps getting infections, you may want to consider talking to a doctor about the big picture of his health, and what to expect over the coming year. Palliative care doctors are especially good at this.

Did you hubs get better? You can treat bacteria naturally as well as these bacteria have become more and more resistant to antibiotics. When you have asymptomatic bacteruiria in urine test right after antibiotic treatment 14 days for a previous kblesia pneumatia bacteria another with no symptoms at all , if bacteria colonizes in bladder can it spread to kidneys or cause sepsis.

I now have citrobacter freundii and prescribed nitrofurantoin antibiotics but have not taken yet. Waiting to see if I have any symptoms. Just concerned about the colonizing. Culture has not come back yet. Most all antibiotics really hard for me to take. I am so glad I found your site, so interesting. Wish I could get these post in print to review without searching on computer. Thanks so much for what you are doing for older adults.

Mary Hill October 16, Yes, if the bladder is colonized with bacteria, then this is associated with a slightly higher chance of developing sepsis or a clinically important infection in the kidneys. Probably a better approach is to get lots of rest and try to take a holistic approach to health that can cultivate a stronger immune system. Probably adequate rest, social support, exercise, good nutrition, and other basics of good health can support the body and make it a little less likely that a person develops sepsis.

When to use antibiotics? FYI, you should be able to see a small printer icon at the end of each article. If you click this, you should be able to easily print a copy of the article. Thank you so much for our your answer. I have not heard from the culture and still do not have any symptoms. I feel fine today, just getting over the 14 days of other antibiotics I took. No symptoms then either. I am going to stop worrying over this and get on with my life.

Again I appreciate your answer. God bless. Mary Hill. How should a uti in an 87 year old woman that shows citrobacter fruendii complex be treated? What happens if it is left untreated? Sometimes the person will have been started on an antibiotic at the time they are seen for symptoms, but the urine culture results and the antibiotic susceptibility results usually take an additional days to come in.

So doctors and families should follow-up on those results, to be sure they use an antibiotic that will work against the bacteria. If a UTI is left untreated, it may eventually resolve on its own. The symptoms might go away given some time, as the body manages to fight the infection. Especially in someone who is 87, the bacteria will probably persist in the bladder for a while, but this is colonization, not an active infection.

These might include signs such as fever, elevated heart rate, lower blood pressure, or weakness. A study found that in women with UTI symptoms they were mainly in their late 30s and 40s , a certain number of them get better without antibiotics: Women with symptoms of uncomplicated urinary tract infection are often willing to delay antibiotic treatment: a prospective cohort study.

Is there a greater risk for people to develop bladder cancer when they have a history of colonized bacteria in the urinary tract? I am not aware of any data suggesting that asymptomatic bacteriuria is a risk factor for bladder cancer. Hi Dr Kernisan, Thank you so much for your very informative article on asymtomatic bacteriuria vs. My mum has this condition asymptomatic bacteriuria.

After several rounds of antibiotics this summer for what they were calling a UTI, we were sent to urology. They explained everything as you have, and placed Mum on Hiprex mg, and Vitamin C mg per day. The vitamin C is used to create an acidic bladder, and the Hiprex, as it enters this acidic environment, converts to formeldahyde which suppresses bacterial growth. Our pharmacist said as long as a doctor is monitoring my mum it should be ok.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this medication. Mum is 90 years old. I recently looked up the research on these medications for one of my own consultation patients also aged 90s , who was put on them by urology. For my own patient, she really hated taking the pills and wanted to be on fewer medications.

So we discontinued them, and she seems to be doing the same as before. I think that many doctors feel a bit compelled to offer their patients something for the urinary concerns. But as best I can tell, there is not yet good scientific evidence that this is likely to help women like your mom. Hope this helps! Hi Dr K!

I had asked a question a while ago re: asymptomatic bacteriuria and the use of Hiprex and Vitamin C for treatment. Anyway, my Mum went to the urologist for a 3 month check up, and Dr. N was pleased with her progress. I told him I had a concern about her being on Hiprex long term, and he said it was actually safer than using antibiotics.

Me being a nurse of course I had to look it up! Thanks again for your input! Hi, appreciate your article. I am concerned about my otherwise healthy year-old mom who frequently has positive cultures. Problem is, she had completely asymptomatic infection so we did not treat, and soon she almost died of sepsis—all with no symptoms. Even the sepsis had few symptoms until she was quite far along with it.

Would you please explain how, in elderly who feel few or no symptoms, one can safely not treat —when there is always a possibility of progression to bacteremia and sepsis? People who are treated repeatedly for their positive urine cultures can also develop sepsis. Once an older adult has developed chronic bacteriuria, it tends to persist for a while no matter what you do.

Continuous antibiotics for UTI prophylaxis has been tried in younger adults, but as far as I know, has not been studied in people like your mom, so whether it actually is likely to improve outcomes is unknown. The truth is that when it comes to older adults, all the options come with risks and uncertainties. But sure, there is risk. C, D, and B12 and flaxseed oil pills along with BP meds and sml dose hydrochlorot…. Hm, hard to say what might be causing the smell in your urine.

It can be caused by certain foods and medications. I would recommend talking to your doctor about what might be the cause. Also if you are experiencing any continence issues that are impacting your social activities, be sure to bring that up to the doctor as well. Such doctors do the most thorough pelvic exams, and have lots of experience helping older women manage continence and urinary issues. I find this article very useful.

My father is reaching 89 and was partly paralysed with stroke. Last month he had low fever around 99 degree Fahrenheit that subsided with paracetamol. Once he was out of fever, we noticed clouded dark yellow urine. After he was back from hospital, the clouded urine was back.

Now it is three weeks since he is without fever or pain. He appears OK. Though nitrofurans and trimethoprim are still continuing, there is no change in clouded urine condition.

He has serious issues with oral antibiotics but we have been pushing them with physicians advice. This article has bettered my understanding of the situation.

The Dr always has her take antibiotic! Over the last month she has been bleeding with clots from her Urethra — he scoped her and said her bladder lining has sores in it from previous UTI — he did not scrape it to test cells. When asked again about sores in bladder he says oh not sure.

Very Concerned. These antibio make my Mom very sick. Hm, this does sound concerning. You might want to ask the doctor to explain why he is recommending antibiotics if there is no sign of UTI, and how does he know this is not asymptomatic bacteriuria.

It may also be worthwhile to get a second opinion from a urologist regarding her bladder lesions, and to ask whether cells should be tested or a biopsy done. In , I ended up in the hospital with severe kidney infection and dehydration. I follow the guidelines for preventing infections. My doctor always does a culture before prescribing antibiotics. She is concerned about antibiotic resistance.

The last time I had an infection Aug. The doctor agreed to see if the symptom improved on its own. After the urine has flowed for several seconds, place the collection cup into the urine stream.

Collect about 2 fl oz 59 mL of urine without stopping the flow of urine. Move the cup out the urine stream. Don't touch the rim of the cup to your genital area. Don't get toilet paper, pubic hair, stool feces , menstrual blood, or anything else in the urine sample. Finish urinating into the toilet or urinal. Carefully replace and tighten the lid on the cup. Then return the cup to the lab. If you collect the urine at home and can't get it to the lab in an hour, refrigerate it.

Other collection methods A health professional may collect a urine sample by placing a urinary catheter into the bladder.

How long the test takes The test will take a few minutes. How It Feels This test usually doesn't cause any pain or discomfort. Risks There are no known risks from having this test. Results Urine culture results are usually ready in 1 to 3 days. Urine culture Normal: No bacteria or other germs such as fungi grow in the culture.

Abnormal: Organisms usually bacteria grow in the culture. The culture result is positive. Credits Current as of: September 23, Previous Section: Related Information Top of the page. Female Urinary System Prostate Gland. If you notice any of the above signs, increase your fluid intake for 1 to 2 days to dilute the bacteria level. If you notice physical symptoms of a UTI, go to your primary care provider for a urinalysis and urine culture.

The culture will determine what antibiotics the bacteria are sensitive to, which will determine the best treatment for your UTI. MyGillette Portal Access medical records, pay bills and view, cancel or reschedule upcoming appointments.