So, you think you might have a UTI. But your work day is jam-packed and you’re hosting book club tonight and haven’t even stocked up on snacks. Squeezing in a trip to the doctor is the last thing you want to add to your to-do list, but staying in good health is one of your top priorities. Learning the early signs of a UTI can help you better understand what’s happening in your body—and help you know what’s important to share with your doctor.
LET’S START WITH A SYMPTOM CHECK.
Not everyone with a urinary tract infection develops symptoms, but most have at least a few tell-tale signs.
Do any of these apply to you?
- You experience a burning sensation when you urinate.
- You feel a strong, persistent need to urinate, yet only pass a small amount.
- Your urine is cloudy or contains blood.
- Your urine has a strong odor.
- You have pain in your back or lower abdomen.
- You experience nausea, vomiting and/or just feel ill.
Two or more? Time to see your doctor. And the sooner you get UTI treatment, the better. UTIs are no joke – left untreated the infection could lead to serious complications.
STILL UNSURE? TRY AN AT HOME UTI TEST.
At home tests are a great way to detect a UTI before going to see your doctor. Some, like AZO Test Strips®, are the same urinary tract infection tests used in many doctor’s offices. The most reliable, over-the-counter UTI home test available, AZO Test Strips®offer two UTI tests in one – including both Leukocyte (white blood cells) and Nitrite tests. These tests performed together are more effective for detecting a UTI than testing for nitrite alone. (Doctors look for Leukocytes as well as Nitrites in diagnosing UTIs.)
If you get a positive result, it’s time to call your doctor with the results. If your result is negative but you are experiencing symptoms, you should still call your doctor. A small number of people may not have detectable nitrites even though an infection is present.
FINDING RELIEF UNTIL YOU SEE THE DOC
If you’re just feeling that first hint of an infection, the powerful antibacterial agent in AZO Urinary Tract Defense® can help control your infection.∞ If you’re already in the throes of a painful infection, you can get fast UTI relief from the pain and urgency of urinary tract infection symptoms with AZO Urinary Pain Relief® and AZO Urinary Pain Relief® Maximum Strength, the #1 pharmacist recommended, over-the-counter brand.†
Soon you will be able to perform a bacterial culture at home to test for urinary tract infection (UTI), with clinical-level results.
A "digital dipstick" developed by researchers at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden proved more accurate than currently available over-the-counter UTI tests, in a recently-published study.
A miniaturized and digitalized version of culture plates which are used in clinical laboratories, the digital dipstick detects infection with 89 percent sensitivity, the researchers reported in the journal Lab on a Chip.
One key difference with existing home tests is that the digital dipstick uses a digital bioassay to detect actual infectious bacteria, instead of the biomarkers which are associated with urinary tract infection, says Emre Iseri, a researcher in micro- and nanosystems at KTH.
"The test strips you find at pharmacies do not give you clinically relevant results," Iseri says. "They measure biomarkers, such as nitride and leucocyte levels in urine, and make a conclusion based on these values.
"But various studies show that their sensitivity is too low to be relied on as a diagnostic tool."
Co-author Wouter van der Wijngaart says commercial test strips have a high detection limit, so clinically-relevant bacterial concentrations can go undetected.
A patient urine sample could have bacterial concentration that is high enough to indicate infection, but with lower biomarker levels than the detection limit of the strip - resulting in a false-negative reading."
Wouter van der Wijngaart, Co-author, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Iseri says that the digital dipstick may provide an advantage over not only home tests, but clinical tests as well. Because clinical tests require a two- to three-day wait for results, patients are often needlessly prescribed antibiotics in the interval. By contrast, the digital dipstick produces results in about 10 to 12 hours, thus avoiding unnecessary and unproductive treatment that could lead to further illness and, on a wider scale, antibiotic resistance.
In addition to Iseri and van der Wijngaart, researchers Herman Goossens, Pieter Moons, and Michael Biggel from the University of Antwerp in Belgium contributed to this work.
Source:
Journal reference:
Iseri, E., et al. (2020) Digital dipstick: miniaturized bacteria detection and digital quantification for the point-of-care. Lab on a Chip. doi.org/10.1039/D0LC00793E.