Urine culture as a test for cure: Why, when, and how?

Quantitative urine cultures and antimicrobial susceptibility profiles provide an accurate method of diagnosing bacterial infection and monitoring therapy. Diagnostic urine cultures are performed prior to initiation of antimicrobic therapy and are essential to avoid treating noninfectious disorders with antimicrobial drugs. Therapeutic urine cultures are obtained during antimicrobic therapy and are used to verify antimicrobic efficacy and to help determine reasons for antimicrobic failure. Surveillance urine cultures are preformed shortly after completion of successful antimicrobic therapy. Surveillance cultures are used to detect recurrent infections at a subclinical state and are essential to differentiate relapses from reinfections.