Spectrum of bacterial colonization associated with urothelial cells from patients with chronic lower urinary tract symptoms.

ABSTRACT: Chronic lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), such as urgency and incontinence, are common, especially among the elderly, but their etiology is often obscure. Recent studies of acute urinary tract infections implicated invasion by Escherichia coli into the cytoplasm of urothelial cells, with persistence of long-term bacterial reservoirs, but the role of infection in chronic LUTS is unknown. We conducted a large prospective study with eligible patients with LUTS and controls over a 3-year period, comparing routine urine cultures of planktonic bacteria with cultures of shed urothelial cells concentrated in centrifuged urinary sediments. This comparison revealed large numbers of bacteria undetected by routine cultures. Next, we typed the bacterial species cultured from patient and control sedi

SUBMITTER: Khasriya R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3697662 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature