Q. What are some of the important considerations when diagnosing and treating Urinary Tract Infections (UTI)?

A. Recurrent or chronic UTIs are often the result of multiple organism.  Current data supports that 30% of UTI’s are polymicrobial in nature.  Urine culture is biased towards a single infectious organism based on CFU (colony-forming unit) count, possibly leading to inappropriate therapy.  Some fastidious organisms are difficult or simply do not grow in standard culture which may lead to incorrect treatment or non-treatment. The advantage of PCR is the ability to test for and detect multiple organisms simultaneously, including those that may not grow readily in culture.  MedArbor’s PCR technology also provides clinicians with Multidrug Resistant treatment guidance based on the detection of Antibiotic Resistance Markers.