Dip-slide in patients at high risk of urinary tract infection.
146 initial and follow-up urine specimens of a urinary tract infection clinic were processed simultaneously by a dip-slide and by a standard pour plate method to evaluate the reliability of this simplified urine culture technique in a population with a high incidence of urinary tract infections. The dip-slide method gave false-negative results in only 8.7% of infected urines (greater than 10(5) cfu/ml urine), as determined by pour plate method. 1.3% false-positives were recorded. The false-negative rate rose to 22.2% when the dip-slide was used on the urines from patients on antimicrobial therapy. Our findings suggest that this simplified urine culture method is a useful tool even in populations with high incidence of urinary infections, although more careful evaluation of these test results is necessary when antimicrobial drugs are present in the urine specimens.
D001431:Bacteriological Techniques; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014552:Urinary Tract Infections / Q000175:diagnosis*; D014556:Urine / Q000382:microbiology*