Collection of urine specimens in general practice: to clean or not to clean?

The usefulness of preparatory vulval cleansing before urine specimen collection was evaluated in women aged 16 to 75 years attending a general practice. A total of 316 specimens were examined, 158 from women with symptoms of cystitis and 158 from controls. No significant differences were found in the numbers of contaminated or unreliable results between the specimens collected with and those collected without preparatory cleansing.