Urinary Tract

That cranberries can promote health of the urinary tract and ward off infection is no longer in doubt. But one of the researchers who worked out how is now hedging her bets that this small, red berry holds other bug-beating promise. In 1998, Amy B. Howell and other scientists at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., first published work showing that it was substances called proanthocyanidins, or PACs--found in the juice of cranberries--that zap the E.

Without looking at the next sentence, name the second most frequent form of illness among women, next to the common cold. The answer is urinary tract infection. And if most of the public isn't aware of the prevalence of this growing problem, doctors and researchers certainly are. Every year, an estimated 1.5 million American women are hospitalized with such infections, commonly called UTIs, and another 6 to 7 million visit their doctors for treatment.

Confirming generations of popular wisdom, a major study has found that frequent sexual intercourse and spermicides increase the risk of urinary tract infections in women. The research also estimates that such infections occur in sexually active young women about once every two years. The study found that the more frequently young women have intercourse, the more likely they are to get the infections.

The first clue might be an annoying need to visit the bathroom way too often. That's followed by a burning sensation while urinating and sometimes pain in the pelvic area. Urinary tract infections most often affect women, but men aren't immune, especially in later life when enlargement of the prostate gland can increase the likelihood. But lately there's good news for sufferers.

The Jordanian royal palace announced that "abnormal" cells were found in sections of King Hussein's urinary tract removed during surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., last week. It did not say whether the cells were malignant. But it said that the biopsy persuaded surgeons to remove Hussein's left kidney as well.

Elderly men who have difficulty urinating because of an enlarged prostate may be able to avoid surgery with two alternative procedures, doctors from the United States and Britain said last week. Up to 60% of men beyond age 60 suffer the discomforting symptoms of a narrowed or blocked urinary tract caused by an inflamed prostate. Surgery to reduce the size of the gland can cause impotence and other problems. The prostate produces a fluid that is a major constituent of semen.

NMS Pharmaceuticals Inc. said it will put its EZ Detect Urinary Blood Test on the market for home use no later than May 1. The Newport Beach company said that each kit, which will retail for $7.50, includes six dipsticks that can detect blood in the urinary tract, which could signal kidney, bladder or prostate trouble. The company said it obtained U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for both home and physicians' versions of the tests early in September.

President Reagan, suffering discomfort caused by an enlarged prostate gland, will undergo surgery next month to widen his urinary tract, White House spokesman Larry Speakes said Wednesday. The operation, to be performed under a low-level anesthetic administered through the spine, will require Reagan to be hospitalized at the Bethesda Naval Medical Center for three or four days beginning Jan. 4--one month and two days before his 76th birthday.

President Reagan enters Bethesda Naval Hospital today for a series of urinary tract tests that will follow up on previous examinations and are unrelated to his cancer surgery of last year, the White House announced Friday. Reagan is expected to return to the White House in the afternoon. While at the hospital, he will participate in a voluntary drug testing program for top-ranking presidential aides, which is scheduled to begin Monday.

Guard Wes Matthews of the San Antonio Spurs, originally thought to have kidney stones, is suffering from a congenital disorder that blocks his urinary tract and will sideline him for the rest of the season, the team reported. Tests showed Matthews suffers from a pelvic junction obstruction, which is causing swelling.