Significance of bacterial variants in urine of patients with chronic bacteriuria.

Abstract

A total of 234 urine cultures was processed from 131 patients. L-forms or protoplasts were demonstrated from 11 of 57 (19%) patients with chronic urinary tract infection and pyelonephritis. No filtrable bacterial variants were cultured from urine of 59 patients with renal disease other than chronic bacteriuria or from 15 consecutively hospitalized patients without renal disease. Methods of isolated and culturing enteric bacterial variants were described. Patients from whom variants were identified during treatment with antibiotics were shown to relapse with the original parent-strain when therapy was completed. These observations suggest that L-forms and protoplasts may play a role in microbial persistence of chronic renal infection.