The value of testing urine in non-gonococcal urethritis

This audit was conducted to look into the necessity of testing urine threads, in the diagnosis of non-gonococcal urethritis (NGU). In a sample of 280 NGU cases, it was found that in 8.8% of cases there was a risk of the diagnosis being missed, should Gram-stained urethral smears be totally relied on. The study showed that examining urine threads is beneficial in diagnosing NGU, especially, in symptomatic men with negative Gram-stained urethral smears. It should be noted, however, that in the group of patients studied for this audit, urine threads testing did not detect any chlamydia-positive NGU cases.