A NOVEL METHOD FOR ISOLATING AND QUANTIFYING URINE PATHOGENS COLLECTED FROM GEL-BASED DIAPERS

Background. Given that children often present to physicians with a wet gel-based diaper, a method for using this diaper for a urine specimen was studied. Methods. A blinded clinical laboratory trial was conduct ed in the microbiology laboratory. The sampling technique involved the use of oval gynecologic forceps as a template and sterile scissors to cut out samples of diapers. Each diaper sample was then vortexed in 2 0 mt of sterile saline and the supernatant quantitatively cultured. Di aper sample supernatant cultures with simulated infected urines (suspe nsions of Escherichia coli) were used. Results. Weight measurements of the diaper samples soaked with 20 mt or more of saline yielded reprod ucible results (0.703 g; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.52 to 0.88 g) . Culture results (colony-forming units per liter [CFU/L] of supernata nt) from diapers soaked with 25 mL of various concentrations of E coli (10(6), 10(7), 10(8), 10(9) CFU/L) showed excellent correlation with the inoculum used, and no effect of a 2-hour delay in culturing the we t diapers. Conclusions. Our technique provides accurate and reliable e stimates of bacterial concentrations in the usual range for infected u rine from gel-based diapers soaked with solutions of E roll. Further e valuation of clinical implementation is needed.