Urinalysis – Physical And Biochemical Practice Test

When nitrite is positive on a urine dipstick, it points to the presence of nitrate-reducing bacteria in the urinary tract, most commonly a urinary tract infection caused by organisms like E. coli. The best next step is to obtain a urine culture to identify the specific organism and its antibiotic susceptibilities. This allows you to tailor antibiotic therapy to the offender and avoid unnecessary or ineffective treatment. Starting antibiotics immediately without culture can lead to inappropriate choice or overuse of broad-spectrum agents and may miss resistant pathogens. Waiting a week to recheck would delay needed treatment and could allow the infection to worsen. Discarding the sample isn’t appropriate because the positive nitrite result provides clinically useful information that warrants culture confirmation and guidance for therapy.