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What Causes Leukocytes In Urine?
Question: I took an azo test and shows positive for leukocytes what should I do
Brief Answer:
This could be a UTI.
Detailed Answer:
Hello and welcome,
Having leukocytes (white blood cells) in the urine can be a sign of urinary tract infection. It can also be a sign of inflammation from various causes, without having a UTI. But the most common reason is UTI.
Uncomplicated lower UTIs do not always need an antibiotic. If you are feeling relatively comfortable, no fever, nausea, or flank pain, then you can try to treat it on your own by drinking copious amount of water and taking either a cranberry powder supplement (comes in capsules or other forms), or drinking a lot of cranberry juice.
If you decide to drink cranberry juice, best to get it in concentrate form and reconstitute it with water and apple juice so that you don't get the large amounts of sugar in prepared juice like Ocean Spray.
If this does not help the painful urination and urgency, or if you get any of the symptoms I described above, then go to your local doctor or an urgent care clinic to give a urine specimen. They should do a "dip" urinalysis, which can be done in the office to give an idea of if there is a UTI, but they should definitely then send the specimen for "culture and sensitivity".
The culture is where they see if bacteria grows on culture medium. The sensitivity testing is where they take the bacteria that has grown (if any has) and test it against different antibiotics to see which ones work the best.
This is standard good medical practice for UTIs.
I hope this information helps and that you are soon feeling better.
This could be a UTI.
Detailed Answer:
Hello and welcome,
Having leukocytes (white blood cells) in the urine can be a sign of urinary tract infection. It can also be a sign of inflammation from various causes, without having a UTI. But the most common reason is UTI.
Uncomplicated lower UTIs do not always need an antibiotic. If you are feeling relatively comfortable, no fever, nausea, or flank pain, then you can try to treat it on your own by drinking copious amount of water and taking either a cranberry powder supplement (comes in capsules or other forms), or drinking a lot of cranberry juice.
If you decide to drink cranberry juice, best to get it in concentrate form and reconstitute it with water and apple juice so that you don't get the large amounts of sugar in prepared juice like Ocean Spray.
If this does not help the painful urination and urgency, or if you get any of the symptoms I described above, then go to your local doctor or an urgent care clinic to give a urine specimen. They should do a "dip" urinalysis, which can be done in the office to give an idea of if there is a UTI, but they should definitely then send the specimen for "culture and sensitivity".
The culture is where they see if bacteria grows on culture medium. The sensitivity testing is where they take the bacteria that has grown (if any has) and test it against different antibiotics to see which ones work the best.
This is standard good medical practice for UTIs.
I hope this information helps and that you are soon feeling better.
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Arnab Banerjee
Answered by
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