Background: Significant bacteriuria is very important marker of urinary tract infection. The standard method for diagnosis of UTI is quantitative urine culture and identification of bacteria. For rapid enumeration of bacteria in urine semiautomatic systems were developed. Aim of the study was to compare the results of the conventional urine culture method with nephelometric enumeration of bacterial cells in urine.
Material and method: Urine samples were evaluated simultaneously by Uro-Quick and quantitative urine culture.
Results: In summary 1 653 urine samples were elaborated, 402 (83.05 %) from 484 positive samples had positive results in Uro-Quick. Sensitivity of Uro-Quick was 0.83, specificity 0.95, positive predictive value 0.85, negative predictive value 0.93 and accuracy 90.68. Culture time extension improved statistical performance characteristic of Uro-Quick. Problem of the method is the detection of the low amounts of microorganisms. Uro-Quick did not detected microbial growth in 16.77 % of samples containing >/= ten to the fourth CFU/ml of microorganisms. The advantage of Uro-Quick is the speed, 73.93 % of the samples with high microbial concentrations (>/= ten to the fifth CFU/ml) were detected in three hours.
Conclusion: Uro-Quick offers rapid detection of urine samples with high microbial concentrations, but did not replace the quantitative culture of. Nephelometric detection is necessary to complete with agar plate cultivation.