Laboratory Diagnosis of UTI in Family Practice

The family physician is in the best position to practise preventive medicine and keep patients healthy by routine urinalysis during each visit. Routine screening of the fresh, meticulously collected mid-stream urine may be done by biochemical screening dipstix, followed up by microscopic examination, where positive for leukocytes, blood, or bacteria. Infections should be cultured in children and recurrent infections in the adult patient. The fresh, properly collected, mid-stream, uncentrifuged urine that has motile bacteria per high-power field is equivalent to a colony count of 100 000 per mL and significant of the urinary tract infection. There is still considerable debate in the literature about the traditional criterion of 100 000 bacteria per mL for urinary tract infection, especially for adults who present with urological symptoms. More long-term research is needed in this area of family practice.