Study questions effectiveness of treating symptom-less bladder infections in diabetics

<br>Hunting down and treating symptom-free bladder infections in women with diabetes does nothing to ward off painful recurrences later, a study found. <br><br>Diabetic women are far more prone to bladder

Wednesday, November 13th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Hunting down and treating symptom-free bladder infections in women with diabetes does nothing to ward off painful recurrences later, a study found.

Diabetic women are far more prone to bladder infections and to serious complications from those infections than other women. Because of that, some doctors recommend testing their urine for bacteria and _ since urine is usually sterile _ giving them antibiotics if germs show up.

That doesn't work, Dr. Lindsay E. Nicolle of the University of Manitoba's Department of Medical Microbiology wrote in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

Doctors at the University of Manitoba and St. Boniface General Hospital in Winnepeg, Canada, tested 105 diabetic women who had bacteria in their urine but no symptoms. Fifty were assigned at random to get a placebo, 55 to get antibiotics.

Four weeks later, 78 percent of those on the placebo had bacteria in their urine, compared with 20 percent of those on antibiotics.

However, that short-term elimination of bacteria did not protect the women from painful infections later on. Forty percent of the women on the placebo, and 42 percent of those who got antibiotics, had at least one infection with symptoms over the next two to three years.

Moreover, some women who were given antibiotics suffered bad side effects from the medication.

Bacteria in the urine of diabetics has long been considered ```the enemy of the gate.' So why not attempt to eliminate the enemy before serious harm is done to our patients?'' Dr. Vincent T. Andriole of Yale University School of Medicine wrote in an accompanying editorial. But he said the study shows that the bacteria ``may be just an innocent visitor.''