Abstract: Objective To explore a simple and accurate method for diagnose and treatment of repeated urinary tract infection(UTI) in old female patients. Methods Fifty-five old female patients with repeated UTI were studied. Three methods including phase contrast microscopy examination, routive urine test and urine culture were used to identity if there were some correlations among them. And the specificity and sensitivity of each method were studied. Results The number of epithelial cells adhesive with bacteria significantly correlated with the number of bacteria in urine culture. But the number of urinary white blood cells did not significantly correlate with urine culture results. The sensitivity of the urinary sediment examination by phase contrast microscopy was about 84.8%, and the specificity of the urine routing test was lower, about 51.9%. Conclusion Finding the epithelial cells adhesive with bacteria by phase contrast microscopy examination might be a simple, specific and sensitive method for diagnose UTI.

Key words: urinary tract infection, phase contrast microscopy examination, epithelial cell adhesive with bacteria