When the doctor dips my urine to see if I have a UTI What is he looking for?

When testing for a UTI, your health care providers are checking for bacteria, viruses, fungi, or some types of parasites in your urine. If none of those are present in an abnormal range, then you do not have a UTI.

It is, however, not good to have high levels of protein in your urine. This signals other ailments, not a UTI.

Your best bet is to MAKE CERTAIN your primary care physician has the records - INCLUDING LAB WORK - from your hospital visit in case additional testing is needed.

I would highly recommend contacting your doctor or nurse and informing them of what you know. Ask if they have seen your actual lab results and have them clarify if you need to be concerned. If they have not seen the actual results, start the ball rolling on getting the results sent to your physician.

One last thing - are you pregnant? Some pregnant women release protein in their urine, which is a sign of "pre-eclampisa" or toximia - pregnancy induced hypertention (or high blood pressure).

Again, please make CERTAIN your physician has seen the actual lab results. In all actuality, you may have nothing to worry about. Better to err on the side of safety though!

Good luck!

The physician may have been checking for leukocytes. A UTI will increase the urine leukocyte count.

Blood in the urine indicates the possibility of a kidney stone, infection, or cancer.

Protein in the urine indicates the possibility of kidney disfunction.

(White blood cells)Your body makes these in response to the infection to try to fight it.

(nitrites) bacteria that cause a urinary tract infection (UTI) produce an enzyme that converts urinary nitrates to nitrites. The presence of nitrites in urine indicates a UTI.

They will actually grow the bacteria to find out which bacteria caused the infection it is usually E coli.