In: Nursing
2. Your patient’s pee come back positive for lots of bacteria but no white blood cells and your patient has no symptoms of a UTI what could have caused this? HINT What cell will you look for to confirm your suspicion.
This patient has bacteriuria and no pyuria:
Bacteriuria is defined as:
Pyuria is defined as:
Therefore the presence of polymorphonuclear cells will suggest urinary tract infection.
Plus the presence of squamous cells indicates contamination: >20 squamous cells / high power field.
The absence symptoms of urinary tract infection, the presence of bacteriuria and the presence of squamous cells in the sample suggest that the sample is contaminated and a fresh sample should be collected
The absence of pyuria indicates the absence of inflammation. Whereas the presence of pyuria indicates urinary tract infection and inflammation.
The presence of bacteriuria in the absence of pyuria should not be treated.
When the patient has no symptoms of urinary tract infection but has the presence of bacteriuria it is called asymptomatic bacteriuria.
Asymptomatic bacteriuria should be treated only in the following situations:
Treating asymptomatic bacteriuria in conditions, other than those mentioned above, leads to
The causative agent for asymptomatic bacteriuria:
Asymptomatic bacteriuria is seen in: