Cystitis or latent pyelonephritis? Methods for diagnosing cystitis

The availability of antibiotic therapy has led to the fact that self-medication of a number of diseases is becoming the norm for many people. A woman with suspected cystitis uses a drug that helped her friend at work, or a drug that she saw on TV. All this leads to the fact that a woman harms herself, not only self-medicating a disease that is not diagnostically confirmed. The problem is that when antibiotics are used without a doctor's prescription, strains of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms develop. Therefore, at the first symptoms of cystitis, a woman should consult a doctor for the diagnosis of cystitis and its proper treatment. Read more about the diagnosis of cystitis on estet-portal.com.

History taking and symptom identification in diagnosing cystitis

According to the results of studies, the causative agents of cystitis are conditionally – pathogenic microorganisms. With the development of cystitis, the main complaint of a woman is pain. The pain can be aching, pulling, constant. It can be localized near the bladder.

The main pathogenetic symptom of cystitis is dysuria – pain when urinating.

Also often, when diagnosing cystitis, a woman complains of frequent urge to urinate, urination in small portions, sometimes urinary incontinence and the appearance of blood in the urine.

In this case, urination is accompanied by pain. The nature of pain during urination allows us to differentiate the form of cystitis already when a woman is asked.

Diagnosis of cystitis by the nature of pain:

• The presence of cramps at the beginning of urination indicates initial dysuria, which is a symptom of ascending urethritis and urethrocystitis. The pathogenetic cause of this form of cystitis should be determined by a gynecologist, since infectious diseases are usually present – inflammatory diseases of the genital organs, including STIs.
• The appearance of cramps at the end of urination (terminal dysuria) indicates inflammation of the bladder neck. That is, in this case, the woman has a real cystitis.

What is the laboratory diagnosis of cystitis?

Since the disease in most cases has a rapidly progressive course and severe pain, a quick and accurate diagnosis of cystitis is required.

The primary diagnosis of cystitis consists of three main tests:

• general urinalysis;
• bacteriological culture of urine with determination of sensitivity to antibiotics;
• detailed blood test.

Complete urinalysis confirms the presence of an inflammatory process in the urinary tract. How to distinguish cystitis from latent pyelonephritis, read further on estet-portal.com. At the same time, leukocyturia, hematuria are present, the density of urine increases, its color and transparency change. Urine cultures should be done as soon as possible and before any drugs are taken. Treatment of cystitis is given immediately, before culture results are available, as it is important to control the acute attack of the disease.

However, the data of bacteriological culture of urine in the diagnosis of cystitis is the price of information from which the doctor learns the degree of bacteriuria, the type of pathogen and its sensitivity to drugs, which is important in the etiological treatment of cystitis. Based on the results of urine culture, the doctor determines the adequacy and duration of therapy, the need to add any drug or replacement. In addition, thanks to mass spectrometry today, the result of a urine culture can be known after 4 days.

Acute uncomplicated cystitis is characterized by the presence of more than 10³ CFU of uropathogens in 1 ml of average urine.

CBC is also important in the diagnosis of cystitis. The presence of erased forms of pyelonephritis can be detected only in the presence of leukocytosis in the blood test.

With cystitis, there is never an increase in body temperature and manifestations of leukocytosis. These are symptoms of pyelonephritis.

This is very important when diagnosing cystitis, because there is a high probability of missing latent pyelonephritis. Thus, the diagnosis of cystitis should be carried out on an outpatient basis with research. After a correct diagnosis of cystitis, treatment will be adequate and effective.