Abstract

The urine of normal fasting persons contains small quantities of glucose, between 2 and 20 mg/ 100 ml. The metabolism of large numbers of bacteria multiplying in bladder urine may reduce its glucose concentration to values below 2 mg/100 ml provided sufficient time is allowed - about 6 hours. This bacterial consumption of urine glucose is comparable to the consumption of cerebrospinal fluid glucose in bacterial meningitis. The development of the Uriglox method for screening patients for asymptomatic bacteriuria is based on this phenomenon.