Candida urinary tract infections—epidemiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment: executive summary

The frequency of infection of the urinary tract due to Candida species is increasing in parallel with the rapid advances of medical progress, and these infections are now among the most common problems facing physicians. Despite this fact, much remains to be learned regarding the pathogenesis, diagnosis, and management of bloodborne (antegrade) kidney infections and ascending (retrograde) invasion of the urinary collecting system. The following is a summary of the in-depth analysis of available information from the literature provided in this journal supplement. The finding of Candida species in urine specimens, or candiduria, poses a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge for physicians in primary care or in infectious diseases, endocrinology, nephrology, urology, and critical care medicine and surgery. The presence of Candida species in urine may represent a range of conditions that require interpretation, from procurement contamination of sampling to infections of the kidney and collecting system to life-threatening, disseminated candidiasis. Th