Potential clinical application of an automated fluorescent microbial cell counter in the detection of urinary tract infection

Abstract

Background: Urinary tract infections (UTI) account for millions of office visits and approximately 400 000 hospital admissions every year in the United States; as a result, the cost burden of UTI in the USA is estimated at approximately $2.8 billion. There is a great deal of interest in finding newer, faster, and more reliable methods for diagnosing UTI as compared to the standard urine culture. Methods: An automated fluorescent microbial cell counter was used to compare urine samples found to be positive for Escherichia coli UTI via cell culturing (n = 11) with UTI-negative samples (n = 10). Results: Patients with a positive urine culture had significantly higher cell count results using the microbial cell counter (1.01 × 108 cells/mL) as compared to the negative samples (2.35 × 106 cells/mL; P =.0022). Conclusions: These observations suggest that automated microbial cell counters may serve as a rapid, objective method for the detection of bacteriuria in urine samples submitted for evaluation of suspected UTI. Copyright 2020 The Authors.