TENTATIVE DIRECT ANTIMICROBIAL SUSCEPTIBILITY TESTING IN URINE

Purpose: Tentative direct disk susceptibilities in bacteriuria compare d to standard techniques were reevaluated. Materials and Methods: A st erile cotton swab was saturated with urine and uniformly streaked over the surface of a Mueller-Hinton agar plate. Susceptibility disks were added within 5 minutes and the zone of inhibition around the antibiot ic disk was read after 16 to 18 hours ofincubation. Results: The tenta tive direct susceptibilities showed an accuracy of 98.2% compared to s tandard techniques in 2,906 positive pure cultures. The false-positive rate was 0.53% and the false-negative rate was 0.14%. Conclusions: Re sults of tentative direct antibiotic susceptibility in bacteriuria are comparable to those of standard techniques and are obtained 24 hours sooner.