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Urine Culture and Sensitivity

Urine is normally sterile. However, in the process of collecting the urine, some contamination from skin bacteria is frequent. For that reason, up to 10,000 colonies of bacteria/ml are considered normal. Greater than 100,000 colonies/ml represents urinary tract infection. For counts between 10,000 and 100,000, the culutre is indeterminate.

Sensitivity refers to the antibiotics tested to be effective in stopping the bacteria. While clinical response will generally follow therapy guided by sensisitivity testing, clinical response can be variable.

Normal Values*

Negative	<10,000 colonies/ml
Indeterminate	10,000-100,000 colonies/ml
Positive	>100,000 colonies/ml

*These are general values taken from a variety of sources. The actual normal values may vary from lab to lab and from one type of testing protocol to another.

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Bureau of Medicine and Surgery
Department of the Navy
2300 E Street NW
Washington, D.C
20372-5300

Operational Medicine
Health Care in Military Settings
CAPT Michael John Hughey, MC, USNR
NAVMED P-5139
January 1, 2001

United States Special Operations Command
7701 Tampa Point Blvd.
MacDill AFB, Florida
33621-5323

*This web version is provided by The Brookside Associates Medical Education Division. It contains original contents from the official US Navy NAVMED P-5139, but has been reformatted for web access and includes advertising and links that were not present in the original version. This web version has not been approved by the Department of the Navy or the Department of Defense. The presence of any advertising on these pages does not constitute an endorsement of that product or service by either the US Department of Defense or the Brookside Associates. The Brookside Associates is a private organization, not affiliated with the United States Department of Defense.

Operational Medicine 2001
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