Background: Many beside urine culture devices have been developed with the aim of reliability, simplicity and use in both the physician’s office and the clinical laboratory.
Objective: To compare a novel beside urine culture device (DipStreak, Novamed Ltd. Israel) comprising a combination of MacConkey and Colombia CAN blood agar with conventional seeding on the same culture media.
Methods: A total of 1000 urine specimens sent to our microbiology laboratory were simultaneously processed by both methods. Results were evaluated after 24 and 48 hours incubation at 370C.
Results: Altogether, 171 (17.1%) and 124 (12.4%) specimens were defined as positive by the conventional method using cutoff values of 104 colony-forming units/ml and 105 CFU/ml respectively; 178 specimens (17.8%) were defined as contaminated. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of DipStreak for urinary tract infection were 98.8%, 98.6%, 96% and 99.6% respectively, using a cutoff value of 104 CFU/ml, and 99.3%, 99.2%, 96% and 99.8 respectively, using cutoff value of 105 CFU/ml. Full agreement between both techniques was 95%.
Conclusion: The agreement rate between DipStreak and conventional seeding was remarkably high. These results suggest that DipStreak in the agar combination tested in this study is a useful and precise tool for diagnosing urinary tract infection.