Association of threads in the urine with non-gonococcal urethritis and prostatitis.

In view of the appreciable number of cases of nongonococcal urethritis (NGU) which failed to clear up or relapsed after treatment with a 5-day course of oxytetracycine at St. Thomas' Hospital, observations were carried out in an effort to determine whether residual infection in the anterior or posterior urethra was primarily responsible for the persistence of threads in the first urine specimen of the two-glass test in the absence of obvious urethral discharge.