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Published on: March 10, 2020
Variability in urine culture reporting by Canadian microbiology laboratories
1Clinical Microbiology Proficiency Testing, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia.
Objective:
To determine the ability of microbiology laboratories to perform and to report urine colony counts.
Design:
Clinical Microbiology Proficiency Testing program participants received stabilized simulated urine samples. Laboratories were asked to perform the appropriate test and report results.
Participants:
One hundred and nine clinical microbiology laboratories in British Columbia, Alberta and Nova Scotia.
Outcome Measures:
Consistency of reporting was compared with standards for reporting results as described in the SI Manual in Health Care, 2nd edition.
Results:
The study demonstrated a wide variation in units used for the reporting of results. Ninety-five (87.2%) laboratories reported quantitative urine results in a variety of unit styles. Of those laboratories providing results with units, 80 (84.2%) used one of 10 variations of SI reporting styles. Fifteen (16.8%) laboratories reported metric units in three different styles. Eleven (10.0%) laboratories reported semiquantitative values without stating units. The remaining three (2.8%) did not respond to the survey.
Conclusions:
Many clinical microbiology laboratories have not adopted a consistent form of SI units for reporting quantitative urine culture results. This lack of consistency could potentially lead to interpretation confusion.
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