Rapid identification of the bacterial pathogens responsible for urinary tract infections using direct injection CE

The use of high-performance capillary electrokinetic techniques for the sep aration, identification, and quantitation of intact microbes represents a n ew frontier for separation science. In this work, if is demonstrated that p athogens most responsible for urinary tract infections can be distinguished from one another after direct injection of untreated urine. High efficienc ies (often exceeding 1 000 000 plates/m) and short analysis times (<10 min) are characteristics of this approach. The concentration of the urine matri x appears to be able to cause a small, but definite, change in the electroo smotic now velocity. This high-efficiency separation-based approach could p rove to be invaluable for the diagnosis and tracking of certain diseases. I t also could form the basis for a variety of rapid microbial assays.