Nitrites – Problematic Substance in Urine (Nursing)

00:00 Nitrates in urine are a sign of infection.

00:04 Okay, let that soak in.

00:06 We got a picture of the kidneys there, you got the urine traveling down to the bladder and then we show you microscopic look you've got nitrates there that tells you that we've got bacteria.

00:18 It's probably a sign of the infection and here's why, because bacteria in the urinary tract take urinary nitrates and turn them into nitrites.

00:28 So if nitrites are in your urine, we've got bacteria doing that to your nitrates.

00:34 So many of the gram-negative and some of the gram-positive organisms can do this.

00:39 So nitrites, what's the first thing you think? Bugs, bacteria, UTI.

00:45 So nitrites in the urine are a sign of bacteria because they can turn nitrates into nitrites and lots of gram-negative which are harder to treat and some gram positive organisms can do this.

00:59 These bugs are right in the urinary tract.

01:02 Now what happens if I have a bladder infection or in the ureters that infection can travel right up to the kidneys and then we've got a major problem if the patient ends up with a kidney infection.