Clinical evaluation of a novel chromogenic agar dipslide for diagnosis of urinary tract infections

The performance of a novel dipslide (DipStreak: Novamed, Israel) consisting of chromogenic agar(Uriselect 3; Sanofi Pasteur, France) and blood agar me dia was evaluated prospectively and compared to that of conventional urine culture for the diagnosis of urinary tract infection. A total of 1070 clean -catch urine specimens obtained from 251 hospitalized patients and 819 outp atients were processed. The overall performance of the DipStreak was as fol lows: sensitivity, 95.7%; specificity, 99.2%; agreement, 89.8%; accuracy, 9 8%; positive predictive value, 98.5%; and negative predictive value, 97.7%. A total of 270 urine specimens were positive by both DipStreak and convent ional culture. The chromogenic agar allowed rapid identification of organis ms in 211 (78.1%) cultures, while isolates in the other 59 (21.9%) cultures remained unidentified. The results indicate that the DipStreak device coup led with the Uriselect 3 agar represents a convenient and accurate method f or inoculation of urine specimens, quantitation of bacteria, diagnosis of s ignificant bacteriuria, and presumptive identification of isolates.