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EDWARD H. KASS, M.D., Ph.D.

AMA Arch Intern Med. 1960;105(2):194-198.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

The interpretation of bacterial cultures of the urine has been greatly aided by the use of quantitative methods. Analysis of the bacterial colony counts of urines obtained from large numbers of patients has indicated that, except for certain defined clinical circumstances,¹ a colony count greater than 100,000 per milliliter of freshly obtained urine generally indicates the presence of true bacteriuria, that is, of actual multiplication of bacteria within the urinary tract. Conversely, bacterial colony counts less than 100,000 usually represent contamination attendant upon the collection of the specimen.^2,3

The validity of this approach has been amply confirmed,^4-6 despite some earlier and relatively minor disagreements that have since been largely resolved.⁷ The quantitative approach has been of value not only in defining the presence or absence of infection of the urinary tract in the usual clinical setting, but also it has provided a means for determining the presence of asymptomatic infection . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
Boston

From the Mallory Institute of Pathology, Thorndike Memorial Laboratory, Second and Fourth (Harvard) Medical Services, Boston City Hospital, and the Department of Bacteriology and Immunology, Harvard Medical School.

Footnotes
Submitted for publication July 24, 1959.

Read before the 72d Annual Meeting of the Association of American Physicians, Atlantic City, N.J., May 5, 1959.

Supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, United States Public Health Service, and the Massachusetts Heart Association. Various aspects of these studies were carried out in collaboration with Drs. Walter Clough, Joseph Mackie, Benjamin Tenney, and G. K. Mallory, in addition to those mentioned in the text. The assistance of Miss Elizabeth Duncan, Miss Elizabeth Brown, Mrs. Olga Ulchak, and Mrs. Carole Sheft is acknowledged.

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