white blood cells in urine

[ellienor]

I have not had any problems for over a year, but now I have slight discomfort burning and my testing strips show moderate lukocytes in it.

The nitrites are negative.
What could this be from?
I am in the process of being cultured, as of friday.
In the meantime I am doing d-mannose.
What could this mean?
Thanks, Ellie

[Dakota]

Ellie,

I can relate to your confusion. Every home test, and those done by my Uro's show lukocytes, but the nitrites are always negative. They tell me that this is from inflamation in the bladder. My urine has been cultured many times with the same result. I would be interested to know what your culture shows. I have constant burning. Prosed DS helps somewhat with this, but it also depends on what I've eaten. I am having a very difficult time with sticking to the diet.

Best,
Dakota

[kadi]

The explanation I have heard is that when the bladder is inflamed (from an infection OR from an IC flare) it pours out the white blood cells into the urine to try to heal. If I test positive for white blood cells, I make sure to be checked for nitrites, protein & bacteria. If one of those other things comes up as an indicator of infection, then I get a culture done.