Cystitis Research Center

- Welcome -

February, 2008

Dr. Fugazzotto is retired and is no longer culturing or consulting with patients due to advanced age. If you wish to have a broth culture performed he recommends that you contact United Medical Lab at unitedmedicallab.com. There are instructions there for sending a specimen for culturing and a phone number to contact them. For treatment consultation he recommends that you call Ruth Kriz, nurse practitioner at (202)714-2415. She specializes in treating patients with chronic bladder symptoms.

This site is dedicated to helping Interstitial Cystitis patients, or those who suspect they may have IC, or those having chronic bladder problems such as pelvic pain, urinary frequency, burning, urethral symptoms, or urgency and pressure.

Dr. Paul Fugazzotto

Dr. Paul Fugazzotto, founder and operator of the CRC, is a microbiologist who graduated from the University of Michigan with a Ph.D. in microbiology and an MSPH in public health. He has 60 years of experience working in state laboratories and retired as director of the State Health Laboratory in Nevada. In his work of processing thousands of urine specimens he has found that cystitis is not a simple infection. Actually, there are three species of organisms involved in the discomfort of this condition. Resolving the management of this condition requires the use of a Trypticase Broth Culture preliminary to screening out the individual components of the causative agents. The broth culture was established about 200 years ago by the pioneers of microbiology. Its accuracy has been authenticated through the years by professional medical laboratory personnel who have used it in the diagnosis of all microbial infections.

The intestinal bacilli recovered in the conventional colony count method of culture and diagnosis mature six times faster than the infecting COCCUS strains which are also present in the cases of cystitis. These bacilli mask the appearance of the cocci on the agar plates. The broth culture screen exposes all of the damaging elements present in the patient's body. From this culture the laboratory personnel can separate out the index organisms for appropriate remedy. The specific technology for this requires no less than four (4) days of processing by personnel academically experienced in pathogenic microbiology.

All medical labs are equipped and capable of performing the above testing. Dr. Fugazzotto wishes to point out that two labs in Northern VA do an approximated version of this test, but this should not imply that they duplicate his procedures exactly. Dr. Fugazzotto has written down his procedures and this protocol is available from him upon request.

Information on Dr. Fugazzotto's philosophy and testing is available on this site, but due to his age and health, he can no longer be contacted directly.