About 60 percent of women will get one UTI within their lifetime with approximately 20 to 30 percent of women experiencing recurrent UTIs. Twelve percent of men will have at least one UTI during their lifetime.

Urinary tract infections don’t always cause signs and symptoms. Symptoms of lower UTIs include burning or pain while urinating, frequent urge to urinate with little or no volume (urgency), lower abdominal cramping or pain, and possible low-grade fever. Symptoms of upper UTIs are more severe and can include acute flank, back or groin pain, dysuria, urgency, fever, chills, nausea, and extreme fatigue.  Escherichia coli accounts for about 80-85 percent of all UTIs, followed by Staphylococcus species, accounting for 10-15 percent. Other bacterial pathogens – including Klebsiella, Pseudomonas, Proteus, and Enterococcus species – are also infrequently implicated.

Antibiotic resistance genes or markers are often located on plasmids inside bacteria and can be transferred between bacteria by conjugation, transformation, or transduction. Plasmids are small DNA circles outside the bacterial chromosome. Several antibiotic resistance genes can be present on the same plasmid. Antibiotic resistance genes produce proteins that inhibit the antibiotic effect on bacteria. Antibiotic resistance rates are increasing among urinary pathogens, both in community and hospital infections, leading to increased therapeutic difficulties, worse clinical and economic outcomes, and longer hospitalizations.

Urine culture-based methods for the detection of pathogens involved in UTI n dine antibiotic susceptibility tests are cumbersome. They require up to 30 hours of culturing time, lack sensitivity and have been shown to miss a significant percentage of positive cases. Raazi Clinical Laboratory`s UTI test screens for the most common pathogens and the antibiotic resistance markers simultaneously by utilizing advanced molecular identification techniques, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). The PCR urine test utilizes a technologically advanced process to “copy” a portion of DNA from the patient’s urine sample in order to identify the precise pathogen causing their UTI, which antibiotics may be most effective to treat their UTI, and to which antibiotics their bacteria may be resistant.