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 separation, identification, and quantitation of intact microbes represents a new frontier for separation science. In this work, it is demonstrated that pathogens most responsible for urinary tract infections can be distinguished from one another after direct injection of untreated urine. High efficiencies (often exceeding 1000000 plates/m) and short analysis times (< 10 min) are characteristics of this approach. The concentration of the urine matrix appears to be able to cause a small, but definite, change in the electroosmotic flow velocity. This high-efficiency separation-based approach could prove to be invaluable for the diagnosis and tracking of certain diseases. It also could form the basis for a variety of rapid microbial assays.