At a Glance

Why Get Tested?

To diagnose a urinary tract infection (UTI)

When To Get Tested?

When yous experience symptoms of a UTI, such as frequent and painful urination, and/or when a urinalysis indicates you may take a UTI

Sample Required?

A few ounces of urine; the mid-stream clean catch urine sample is the most common type of sample collected. (The genital area is cleaned earlier collecting your urine.) Urine may also be collected using a catheter and, rarely, a needle is used to aspirate urine directly from the bladder. For infants, a collection bag may exist attached to the genital area to take hold of whatever urine produced.

Test Preparation Needed?

More often than not none, but depending on the type of culture, yous may exist given special instructions. For example, y'all may be asked not to urinate for at least i 60 minutes before the test and/or to drink a glass of water fifteen-20 minutes before sample collection. This will help to ensure that you can produce enough urine for the test. Antibiotics taken prior to the examination may affect your results. Tell your wellness care practitioner if you have taken antibiotics recently.

What is beingness tested?

Urine is the fluid produced past the kidneys that carries h2o and wastes through the urinary tract and and then is eliminated from the torso. The urine culture is a examination that detects and identifies bacteria and yeast in the urine, which may be causing a urinary tract infection (UTI).

The kidneys, a pair of bean-shaped organs located at the lesser of the ribcage in the right and left sides of the back, filter wastes out of the blood and produce urine, the xanthous fluid that carries wastes out of the trunk. Urine travels through tubes chosen ureters from the kidneys to the bladder, where it is stored temporarily, and then through the urethra as it is voided. Urine contains depression levels of microbes, such every bit bacteria or, yeast which motility from the skin into the urinary tract and grow and multiply, causing a urinary tract infection.

Most UTIs are considered uncomplicated and are hands treated. However, if they are not addressed, the infection may spread from the bladder and ureters into the kidneys. A kidney infection is more than dangerous and can lead to permanent kidney damage. In some cases, an untreated urinary tract infection may spread to the bloodstream (septicemia) and cause sepsis, which tin be life-threatening.

Women and girls get urinary tract infections more often than men and boys. Even preteen girls may have frequent UTIs. For men and boys with a UTI confirmed by a urine culture, further tests may exist washed to dominion out the presence of a kidney stone or structural abnormality that could crusade the infection.

People with kidney affliction or with other conditions that affect the kidneys, such as diabetes or kidney stones, and people with weakened immune systems may be more decumbent to frequent, repeated and/or complicated UTIs.

  • For a urine culture, a minor sample of urine is placed on ane or more agar plates (a sparse 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 accept grown. The size, shape, and color of these colonies help to place which bacteria are present, and the number of colonies indicates the quantity of leaner originally present in the urine sample. The quantity can differentiate between normal levels of bacteria versus infection.
  • Ideally, if a adept make clean catch sample was nerveless for the test, merely leaner causing a UTI are present. Typically, this volition be a single type of leaner that will be present in relatively big numbers.
  • Sometimes, more than than 1 blazon of bacteria will be present. This may exist due to an infection that involves more 1 pathogen; however, it is more likely due to skin, vaginal, or fecal contamination picked up during the urine collection.
  • The laboratorian volition take a colony from each blazon and perform other tests, such every bit a gram stain, to place the type (species) of bacteria or other microbe (i.due east., yeast). Susceptibility testing may be washed to decide which antibiotics will likely cure the infection.

If at that place is no or little growth on the agar after 24 to 48 hours of incubation, the urine culture is considered negative and the culture is complete, suggesting an infection is not nowadays.

How is the sample collected for testing?

Although there are several types of urine samples, the mid-stream clean catch is the type near commonly submitted for culture.

  • It is important to start clean the genital area before collecting your urine because of the potential to contaminate the urine with bacteria and cells from the surrounding pare during collection (particularly in women).
  • Start commencement by washing your hands.
  • Women should and so spread the labia of the vagina and clean from front to back using a wipe provided by your healthcare practitioner or the laboratory. It is recommended to repeat with a second towel or wipe.
  • Men should wipe the tip of the penis.
  • First to urinate, allow some urine fall into the toilet, and then collect one to ii ounces of urine straight into the sterile container provided, then void the rest into the toilet. Practice not allow the inside of the container to come up into contact with pare and practise not scoop the urine from the toilet (or whatsoever other container).

For catheterized specimens, a urine sample is taken by inserting a sparse flexible tube or catheter through the urethra into the float. This is performed by a trained healthcare practitioner. The urine is nerveless in a sterile container at the other end of the tube. Rarely, a needle and syringe may be used to collect past aspirating urine direct from the bladder. For infants, a collection purse may be placed on the genital area to collect whatsoever urine produced.

Is any test training needed to ensure the quality of the sample?

Generally, no preparation is needed, just depending on the blazon of civilisation, you may be given special instructions. For example, you may be asked not to urinate for at least one 60 minutes before the test and/or to drinkable a glass of water 15-20 minutes earlier sample collection. This will help to ensure that y'all tin produce enough urine for the test. Sometimes you may exist instructed to collect the get-go urine you void in the morn. Antibiotics taken prior to the test may affect your results. Tell your health care practitioner if you have taken antibiotics recently.

Common Questions

How is the examination used?

The urine culture is used, along with results from a urinalysis, to diagnose a urinary tract infection (UTI) and to identify the bacteria or yeast causing the infection. If a urine culture is positive, susceptibility testing may be done to make up one's mind which antibiotics volition inhibit the growth of the microbe causing the infection. The results will help a healthcare practitioner determine which drugs are likely to be about effective in treating your infection.

A urine culture is used, as recommended past several health organizations, to screen pregnant women for asymptomatic bacteriuria, a condition in which significant amounts of bacteria are in the urine but practise not cause symptoms. About 2%-10% of pregnant women in the U.Due south. accept this condition that can lead to more serious kidney infection as well as increased chance of preterm delivery and low nativity weight.

When is information technology ordered?

A urine culture may be ordered when you have signs and symptoms of a urinary tract infection (UTI) and/or results of a urinalysis show that you may have a UTI.

Some signs and symptoms of a UTI include:

  • A stiff, frequent urge to urinate, even when you lot have but gone and there is niggling urine voided
  • Pain and/or a burning sensation during urination
  • Cloudy, strong-smelling urine
  • Lower back pain

You may as well accept pressure in the lower abdomen and pocket-sized amounts of claret in the urine. If the UTI is more severe and/or has spread into the kidneys, it may cause flank pain, high fever, shaking, chills, nausea or airsickness.

Sometimes, antibiotics may be prescribed without requiring a urine civilization for immature women with signs and symptoms of a UTI and who have an simple lower urinary tract infection. If there is suspicion of a complicated infection or symptoms do non respond to initial therapy, and so a culture of the urine is recommended.

Significant women without whatsoever symptoms are recommended to be screened with a urine culture early on in their pregnancy (e.m., during the second trimester) or during the commencement prenatal visit for bacteria in their urine.

What does the test effect mean?

Results of a urine culture are oft interpreted in conjunction with the results of a urinalysis and with regard to how the sample was collected and whether symptoms are present. Since some urine samples accept the potential to be contaminated with bacteria usually found on the pare (normal flora), care must be taken with interpreting some civilisation results.

Positive urine culture: Typically, the presence of a single type of bacteria growing at high colony counts is considered a positive urine culture.

  • For clean grab samples that have been properly nerveless, cultures with greater than 100,000 colony forming units (CFU)/milliliter of one blazon of bacteria commonly betoken infection.
  • In some cases, however, there may not be a significantly high number of bacteria even though an infection is present. Sometimes lower numbers (i,000 upwards to 100,000 CFU/mL) may indicate infection, especially if symptoms are present.
  • Likewise, for samples collected using a technique that minimizes contamination, such as a sample collected with a catheter, results of i,000 to 100,000 CFU/mL may be considered significant.

Results from a urinalysis can exist used to help interpret results of a urine civilisation. For case, a positive leukocyte esterase (a marker of white blood cells) and nitrite (a marker for bacteria) assist confirm a UTI.

If a culture is positive, susceptibility testing may be performed to guide treatment.

Although a variety of bacteria can cause UTIs, virtually are due to Escherichia coli (E. coli), bacteria that are common in the digestive tract and routinely institute in stool.

Other bacteria that commonly cause UTIs include:

  • Proteus
  • Klebsiella
  • Enterobacter
  • Staphylococcus
  • Acinetobacter

Occasionally, a UTI may be due to a yeast, such equally Candida albicans.

Negative urine culture: A civilization that is reported equally "no growth in 24 or 48 hours" usually indicates that there is no infection. If the symptoms persist, notwithstanding, a urine culture may be repeated on another sample to expect for the presence of leaner at lower colony counts or other microorganisms that may cause these symptoms. The presence of white blood cells and low numbers of microorganisms in the urine of a symptomatic person is a condition known equally astute urethral syndrome.

Contamination: If a culture shows growth of several different types of bacteria, so information technology is probable that the growth is due to contagion. This is especially true in voided urine samples if the organisms present include Lactobacillus and/or other common nonpathogenic vaginal bacteria in women. If the symptoms persist, the healthcare practitioner may request a repeat culture on a sample that is more carefully collected. All the same, if one type of leaner is present in significantly higher colony counts than the others, for case, 100,000 CFUs/mL versus 1,000 CFUs/mL, then additional testing may be done to identify the predominant leaner.

Can a urine culture be used to test for infections other than UTIs, such every bit sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)?

Yes. Urine cultures tin can discover some sexually transmitted diseases. However, a urine civilisation is not the exam of option for sexually transmitted diseases in adults. Some STDs such every bit chlamydia may be tested using a urine sample, only the testing method used detects chlamydia genetic material in the urine and is not a civilisation. Tell your healthcare practitioner if you call up y'all have a sexually transmitted illness, so the practitioner can order the appropriate test. Urine cultures may exist used to examination for STDs in children.

For another example, a urine civilisation may be used to help diagnose infections of the urinary tract and genital tract caused past mycobacteria. Typically, this examination requires that the get-go urine voided in the forenoon be collected.

My health practitioner's part called to say they need a new urine sample, the first was contaminated. What happened?

If the skin and genital expanse were not cleaned well prior to collecting the sample, the urine civilization may grow iii or more than different types of bacteria and is assumed to exist contaminated. The civilisation will exist discarded because it cannot be determined if the bacteria originated inside or outside the urinary tract. A contaminated specimen can exist avoided by following the directions to carefully clean yourself and past collecting a mid-stream clean take hold of urine sample.

My wellness practitioner said I had symptoms of a urinary tract infection and prescribed antibiotics without performing a urine culture. Why?

Bacteria known as Escherichia coli (E. coli) cause the majority of lower urinary tract infections. This microbe is usually susceptible to a variety of antibiotics, such every bit trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, ciprofloxacin, and nitrofurantoin. In well-nigh people with an uncomplicated UTI, the infection volition be cured later on treatment with one of these antibiotics. Based on this information, your health care practitioner may prescribe one of them without performing a culture.

What happens if my infection goes untreated?

If your infection is not treated, information technology can move from the lower urinary tract to the upper urinary tract and infect the kidneys and possibly spread to the bloodstream, causing septicemia and sepsis, a serious and potentially life-threatening status. Signs and symptoms of septicemia include fever, chills, elevated white blood cell count, and fatigue. If a healthcare practitioner suspects septicemia, the practitioner volition typically order a blood culture as well as other tests and will prescribe antibiotics appropriately.

What puts me at adventure for recurrent urinary tract infections?

There are a broad variety of factors that predispose a person to get a UTI. UTIs are more than common in girls and women than in boys and men because of the differences in their genitals and urinary tracts. Some infants and young children accept abnormalities of the urinary tract that they are built-in with (congenital) that increase their risk of UTIs. In adults, sexual intercourse, diabetes, pregnancy, poor bladder control, kidney stones, and tumors are examples of factors that increase adventure of UTIs. In a hospital, nursing home, or home care setting, urinary catheters are major risk factors for UTIs.

Is at that place anything else I should know?

If y'all have frequent and/or recurrent UTIs, culture and susceptibility testing may be performed with each infection. If you have frequent UTIs, conscientious selection of antibiotics and completing the full class of treatment tin exist of import.

Health Professionals – LOINC

Logo for LOINC from RegenstriefLOINC Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC®) is the international standard for identifying health measurements, observations, and documents. It provides a common language to unambiguously identify things you lot tin measure or find that enables the substitution and aggregation of clinical results for intendance commitment, outcomes management, and research. Larn More.

Listed in the tabular array below are the LOINC with links to the LOINC detail pages. Please note when you click on the hyperlinked code, you are leaving Testing.com and accessing Loinc.org.

LOINC LOINC Display Name
17970-5 Bacteria identified # 2 Cx Nom (U)
17971-3 Leaner identified # 3 Cx Nom (U)
17972-1 Leaner identified # iv Cx Nom (U)
17973-nine Bacteria identified # 5 Cx Nom (U)
17974-vii Bacteria identified # vi Cx Nom (U)
44847-two Leaner identified # vii Cx Nom (U)
44849-8 Bacteria identified # 8 Cx Nom (U)
13315-7 Bacteria identified Cx Nom (24H U)
630-4 Bacteria identified Cx Nom (U)
40435-0 Mucus identified Cx Nom (U)
34617-i Other Antibody (Unsp spec) [Mass/Vol]
23658-8 Other Antibiotic [Susc]
45187-two Other Antibody Disk diffusion (KB) [Susc]
55617-5 Other Antibiotic Strip [Susc]
21070-viii Other Antibiotic MIC [Susc]
59833-4 Other Antibiotic MLC [Susc]

View Sources

Sources Used in Current Review

2019 review performed by Nicole Amistani, BS CLS, MT (ASCP) and the Testing.com Editorial Review Board.

(July 30, 2018) Urine Culture Overview. Kaiser Permanente. Available online at wa.kaiserpermanente.org. Accessed May 2019.

Brusch, J. (Updated July nineteen, 2018). Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) and Cystitis (Bladder Infection) in Females. Medscape Reference [On-line data]. Bachelor online at http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/233101-overview. Accessed May 2019.

(Jan 30, 2019) Mayo Clinic. Urinary Tract Infections, Causes. Available online at http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-weather condition/urinary-tract-infection/nuts/causes/con-20037892. Accessed January 2015.

Henry'south Clinical Diagnosis and Management by Laboratory Methods. Chap. 28, Basic Examination of Urine. 22nd ed. McPherson R, Pincus Thousand, eds. Philadelphia, PA: Saunders Elsevier: 2011.

Tietz Textbook of Clinical Chemistry and Molecular Diagnostics. Clinical Syndromes, Urinary Tract Infections. Nader Rifai. 6th edition, Elsevier Wellness Sciences; 2017.

Sources Used in Previous Reviews

Thomas, Clayton Fifty., Editor (1997). Taber'due south Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary. F.A. Davis Company, Philadelphia, PA [18th Edition].

Pagana, Kathleen D. & Pagana, Timothy J. (2001). Mosby's Diagnostic and Laboratory Test Reference fifth Edition: Mosby, Inc., Saint Louis, MO.

Pagana, Kathleen D. & Pagana, Timothy J. (© 2007). Mosby's Diagnostic and Laboratory Test Reference 8th Edition: Mosby, Inc., Saint Louis, MO. Pp 981-983.

Wu, A. (2006). Tietz Clinical Guide to Laboratory Tests, Fourth Edition. Saunders Elsevier, St. Louis, Missouri. Pp 1621-1622.

Thomas, Clayton 50., Editor (1997). Taber'due south Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary. F.A. Davis Company, Philadelphia, PA [18th Edition]. Pp 2037-2038.

Forbes, B. et. al. (© 2007). Bailey & Scott's Diagnostic Microbiology, Twelfth Edition: Mosby Elsevier Printing, St. Louis, Missouri. Pp 842-855.

(2007 August). Your Urinary System and How It Works. National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Data Clearinghouse [On-line data]. Available online at http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseases/pubs/yoururinary/. Accessed March 2009.

(2008). Existing Recommendations for Bacteriuria Screening Upheld. Medscape from Reuters Health Data [On-line information]. Available online at http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/576888. Accessed March 2009.

Stanley Hellerstein, Southward. (2008 September 17). Urinary Tract Infection. EMedicine [On-line data]. Bachelor online at http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/969643-overview. Accessed March 2009.

(2005 November, Revised). Approach to the Renal Patient. Merck Manual for Healthcare Professionals [On-line information]. Available online at http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec17/ch226/ch226b.html#sec17-ch226-ch226b-21. Accessed March 2009.

Barclay, L. and Murata, P. (2007 May 17). Perineal/Genital Cleaning During Urine Collection May Minimize Contamination. Medscape Medical News [On-line CME]. Available online at http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/556640. Accessed March 2009.

McCarter, Y.Southward., E.Yard. Burd, K.S. Hall, and M. Zervos. 2009. Cumitech 2C, Laboratory Diagnosis of Urinary Tract Infections. Coordinating ed. S.E. Sharp. ASM Printing, Washington, DC.

Kasper DL, Braunwald E, Fauci AS, Hauser SL, Longo DL, Jameson JL eds (2005). Harrison'southward Principles of Internal Medicine. 16th Edition, McGraw Colina, Pp 1715 and 1718.

MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. Urine culture, catheterized. Available online at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/commodity/003752.htm. Accessed Apr 2010.

Pagana, One thousand. D. & Pagana, T. J. (© 2011). Mosby'south Diagnostic and Laboratory Test Reference 10th Edition: Mosby, Inc., Saint Louis, MO. Pp 1017-1019.

(2012 May 24). Urinary Tract Infections in Adults. National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Data Clearinghouse, NIDDK. [On-line information]. Available online at http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/KUDiseases/pubs/utiadult/alphabetize.aspx. Accessed October 2012.

(© 1995-2012). Bacterial Civilization, Aerobic, Urine. Mayo Clinic Mayo Medical Laboratories [On-line data]. Available online at http://www.mayomedicallaboratories.com/examination-catalog/Overview/8105. Accessed October 2012.

Johnson, J. et. al. (2011 December 4). Practise Urine Cultures for Urinary Tract Infections Decrease Follow-up Visits? Medscape Today News from J Am Board Fam Med. Five 24(6):647-655. [On-line information]. Available online at http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/753802. Accessed October 2012.

Brusch, J. (Updated 2012 February one). Cystitis in Females. Medscape Reference [On-line data]. Available online at http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/233101-overview. Accessed October 2012.

Graneto, J. and Bechtel, K. (2011 November viii). Emergent Direction of Pediatric Patients with Fever. Medscape Reference [On-line information]. Available online at http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/801598-overview#a1. Accessed Oct 2012.

(2012 May 24). Urinary Tract Infections in Adults. National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Data Clearinghouse, NIDDK. [On-line information]. Available online at http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/KUDiseases/pubs/utiadult/alphabetize.aspx. Accessed December 2015.

(© 1995-2015). Bacterial Civilisation, Aerobic, Urine. Mayo Clinic Mayo Medical Laboratories [On-line information]. Available online at http://www.mayomedicallaboratories.com/test-catalog/Overview/8105. Accessed December 2015.

Brusch, J. (Updated Aug xix, 2015). Cystitis in Females. Medscape Reference [On-line data]. Available online at http://emedicine.medscape.com/commodity/233101-overview. Accessed December 2015.

(July 23, 2015) Mayo Dispensary. Urinary Tract Infections, Causes. Available online at http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/urinary-tract-infection/basics/causes/con-20037892. Accessed January 2015.

Ask a Laboratory Scientist

Ask a Laboratory Scientist

This form enables patients to ask specific questions about lab tests. Your questions will be answered by a laboratory scientist every bit part of a voluntary service provided by 1 of our partners, American Gild for Clinical Laboratory Science. Please let 2-iii business days for an email response from one of the volunteers on the Consumer Information Response Squad.

Transport Us Your Question