Bacteriuria | |
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Other names | Bacteruria |
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Multiple rod-shaped bacteria shown between the larger white blood cells at urinary microscopy from a person with urinary tract infection. | |
Specialty | Emergency medicine, infectious disease |
Types | Asymptomatic, symptomatic[1][2] |
Diagnostic method | Urinalysis, urine culture[3] |
Differential diagnosis | Contamination[1] |
Treatment | Based on symptoms or risk factors[3][4] |
Frequency | Asymptomatic: 3% (middle aged women), up to 50% (women in nursing homes)[5] Symptomatic: up to 10% of women a year[6][7] |
Bacteriuria is the presence of bacteria in urine.[1] Bacteriuria accompanied by symptoms is a urinary tract infection while that without is known as asymptomatic bacteriuria.[1][2] Diagnosis is by urinalysis or urine culture.[3] Escherichia coli is the most common bacterium found.[1] People without symptoms should generally not be tested for the condition.[3] Differential diagnosis include contamination.[1]
If symptoms are present, treatment is generally with antibiotics.[3] Bacteriuria without symptoms generally does not require treatment.[4] Exceptions may include pregnant women, those who have had a recent kidney transplant, young children with significant vesicoureteral reflux, and those undergoing surgery of the urinary tract.[3][4]
Bacteriuria without symptoms is present in about 3% of otherwise healthy middle aged women.[5] In nursing homes rates are as high as 50% among women and 40% in men.[5] In those with a long term indwelling urinary catheter rates are 100%.[5] Up to 10% of women have a urinary tract infection in a given year and half of all women have at least one infection at some point in their lives.[6][7] There is an increased risk of asymptomatic or symptomatic bacteriuria in pregnancy due to physiological changes that occur in a pregnant woman which promotes unwanted pathogen growth in the urinary tract.[8][9][10]
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