in UTI, does it help to monitor using test strips to get an early warning of an infection?
I don’t think it a good idea to randomly be testing for UTI but if you have symptoms that suggest an infection than a dip stick could be done to get an indication. Best course of action though would be to send the urine off to the lab via your GP for culture.
Hope this helps.
Test strips can help indicate there may be an infection but you need to be used to “reading” them or you could be trotting off to the doctor every other day. It’s very common to see slightly raised leukocytes but doctors now ignore these unless the level is very high.
If you had early warning of an infection but no other symptoms, what would you do? Do you have a history of infections?
Test strips may sometimes show alterations in the urine that indicate the possibility of infection but often when an infection is present even lab tests of urine does not always isolate and prove an infection that exists from the patient the urine is tested.
Some bacteria ‘hides’ in the tissue.