A novel method for collecting and detecting amoxycillin in urine: a tool for testing antibiotic compliance in the community

Assessing compliance to prescribed antibiotics in community studies of resp iratory tract infections is difficult. We describe a simple method for coll ecting and detecting amoxycillin in urine using urine dip-sticks in conjunc tion with a bioassay, Urine was collected at timed intervals from eight hea lthy volunteers following oral amoxycillin administration. Dip-sticks inocu lated with urine collected 1 and 8 h after antibiotic resulted in mean zone s of inhibition of 1.75 and 1.37 cm, respectively. Amoxycillin activity rem ained demonstrable 14 days after inoculation of dip-sticks with urine. Dip- sticks inoculated with urine from control subjects who had not taken amoxyc illin did not cause inhibition.