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I work in a laboratory, however I am not a Med Tech. I am concerned about the number of patients in an outpatient setting getting misdiagnosed in regards to a UTI. I have had 2 doctors tell me that if a urine dipstick is negative, the microscopic will be negative also. I asked 2 separate med techs this question (these people do macro/micro UA's their entire shift) and they said that is absolutely false. A urine dipstick test will only be positive if you have a nitrate producing bacteria in your urine. There are other bacteria's that are not nitrate producing, therefore creating a negative dipstick test. They both said that in their experience, which is 15-20 years of looking at urines, they consistently have urines that are negative on dipstick, but have high quantity of bacteria in them. I asked are these cath urines, clean catch urines, etc, and they said yes, any type.
The majority of their testing is from a fresh sample, such as inpatient or emergency room. My question is, where are you getting your information from?
Urine dipsticks are relatively insensitive for detecting urinary tract infections. I actually prefer the leukocyte esterase over the nitrate test for detecting UTI, but both can be falsely negative. The information ......
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Last Update: 2008-04-17 |
Views: 1 |
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