Diagnostics
Advanced diagnostic testing
for chronic illness
At our Orange County practice, accurate diagnosis is the foundation of effective treatment. We use two complementary testing platforms to identify urinary pathogens, tick-borne infections, and coinfections with precision that standard laboratory methods cannot achieve. Precise identification enables targeted molecular therapy options.
Diagnostic Insight
Standard cultures and Western blots can miss up to half of infections. DNA-based sequencing reads the pathogen directly — revealing what conventional labs cannot.
How We Test
Focused testing, matched to what we actually treat
We don't run broad panels hoping something turns up. We use focused testing, matched to what we actually treat:
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Next-Generation Sequencing & Comprehensive Tick-Borne Panels — for Lyme disease and coinfections. Standard Western blot and PCR testing, the tests most doctors' offices rely on, frequently aren't sensitive enough to detect these infections — which is a major reason Lyme and coinfections go undiagnosed.
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MicroGenDx Next-Generation Sequencing — for interstitial cystitis. Standard urine cultures often miss the microbial and inflammatory drivers behind IC symptoms, leading to a diagnosis of exclusion rather than an actual answer.
If a test isn't going to change your treatment plan, we don't order it.
Urinary Microbiome
MicroGenDx — Next-Generation Sequencing
MicroGenDx uses Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) to analyze your urine sample against a database of over 60,000 bacteria and fungi — identifying all microbes present with 99% accuracy within 24 hours.
Standard urine cultures miss up to 50% of infections because many pathogens cannot be grown in a lab. NGS reads the DNA directly, revealing the full microbial picture including biofilm-protected and antibiotic-resistant organisms.
Results include antibiotic sensitivity data, helping guide targeted treatment decisions for recurrent UTIs, interstitial cystitis, prostatitis, and bacterial vaginosis.
MicroGenDx will ship your testing kit directly to you.
Order your MicroGenDx test hereWhy Culture Misses So Much
The limits of the petri dish
Standard urine culture was designed over a century ago to grow a narrow band of fast-growing aerobic bacteria on a single nutrient medium. Yet the bladder is not sterile, and most of its resident flora — along with many true uropathogens — simply will not grow under those conditions (Wolfe et al., J Clin Microbiol, 2014).
Enhanced quantitative culture later recovered organisms the standard method had reported as “no growth.” In that cohort, more than 40% of symptomatic patients with a negative standard culture were culture-positive by expanded techniques (Hilt et al., J Clin Microbiol, 2014).
Bacteria also escape the dish by living inside the body in ways no broth can capture. Many form biofilms on the bladder wall — sessile, slime-encased communities that shed cells too slowly to reach the 10⁵ CFU/mL threshold a culture demands (Nickel & Costerton, J Urol, 1993). Others hide as intracellular bacterial communities inside urothelial cells, invisible to routine plating yet demonstrably active (Anderson et al., Science, 2004).
Fastidious and slow-growing organisms — Ureaplasma, Mycoplasma, anaerobes, and atypical strains — need special media, atmosphere, or incubation times that a 24–48 hour culture simply doesn’t provide (Mazzulli, Can J Urol, 2012). Reading the DNA directly, as NGS does, sidesteps every one of these limitations.
Selected Evidence
- Wolfe AJ, et al. Evidence of uncultivated bacteria in the adult female bladder. J Clin Microbiol. 2014;52(4):1105.
- Hilt EE, et al. Urine is not sterile: use of enhanced urine culture techniques. J Clin Microbiol. 2014;52(3):871–876.
- Anderson GG, et al. Intracellular bacterial biofilm-like pods in urinary tract infections. Science. 2004;305(5692):1987–1989.
- Nickel JC, Costerton JW. Coagulase-negative staphylococcus in chronic prostatitis. J Urol. 1993.
- Mazzulli T. Diagnosis and management of simple and complicated UTIs. Can J Urol. 2012.
Get Started
Not sure which test is right for you?
Book a consultation and we'll help you choose the most appropriate testing panel based on your symptoms, history, and clinical presentation.
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