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Updated: Aug 8, 2026

Ultrasonography of the Adult Male Urinary Tract for Urinary Functional Testing
Published on: August 14, 2019
Prostatic fluid analysis in spinal-cord-injured patients with recurrent urinary tract infections
P G Katz1, A Greenstein, M Midha
1Division of Urology, Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond.
Objective:
Recurrent urinary tract infections are common in spinal-cord-injured patients. Our study was designed to evaluate the association of bacteria colony counts, white blood cell (WBC) count, and antibody-coated bacteria analyzed in urethral and prostatic samples in hospitalized spinal-cord-injured patients with recurrent urinary tract infections.
Methods:
Thirty-three patients were studied and 4 noninfected patients served as controls; 17 patients were paraplegic and 20 were quadriplegic. Mean patient age was 34.8 years and mean follow-up period was ninety-three days. During the surveillance period, 19 of the 33 patients had relapsing infections (same organism), while 14 had reinfections (new organism). A modified Foley catheter was used to seal the bladder neck, so that urethral and prostatic samples could be obtained.
Results:
Bacteria colony counts and WBC counts did not correlate with relapsing infection. However, significantly more patients with relapsing infection (8/19) had antibody-coated bacteria in their prostatic fluid than patients with reinfection (1/13) (P < 0.05).
Conclusions:
The presence of antibody-coated bacteria in prostatic fluid is associated with relapsing urinary tract infections and not with reinfection.
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