Urine is considered a sterile fluid. 0.01ml of urine is plated onto a BAP or MAC
agar plate. Take the number of colonies that grow and multiply by 100. Some
labs use complex protocols for working up urine cultures. A good guide line is
one organism that is greater then 100000, work it up. If a urine has more then
one organisim with each colony or 100000 then do not report and ask for a new
specimen. If less then 10000 then it is probable contamination from when it was
collected and will not be worked up.
This is assuming the urine is collected by the cup method.
The culture does not identify the specific strain of E.coli. In order to
identify the strain it would need to be sent to a referance lab to be typed. I
do not believe the strain ID will help in your treatment.
Hotmail wrote:
> i have had positve urine culture e,coli.2-3 weeks on cirpro antibiotic and
> repeat culture is negative.now i am off cipro and will have another urine
> culture in 2 weeks.
> what constitutes a positve culture?how are cultures quantified with respect
> to the number of pathogens?
> i read where there are different strains of the e.coli.does the culture
> determine what specific strain is present?
> my infection has come and gone in the pass.if i knew what particular strain
> was causing this,would this help to treat it more effectively?i have read
> about d-mannose rx,also certain cytokines which may be necessary for
> bettertreatment.thanks for your advice
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