The dipslide in diagnosis of urinary tract infections

Urinary tract infections (UTI's) are common in medicine. Symptoms may include fever, chills, frequency, and dysuria. Asymptomatic UTI's are also common, with a prevalence of one percent in school girls and ten percent in pregnant women. Pyuria, dysuria, and frequency may be absent in patients with UTI's or present in patients without UTI's. Therefore, a UTI must be bacteriologically diagnosed as greater than 100,000 organisms/ml, usually of a single organism, in a properly obtained urine specimen. The dipslide is a simple, convenient, inexpensive device for the quantitative diagnosis of a UTI. Culture media are layered on both sides of the dipslide, one medium allowing growth of all organisms and the other medium favoring growth of enterobacteriae. After immersion in a clean catch urine specimen, the dipslide is incubated for 24 hours at 37 C. Each urinary organism forms a colony "dot". The density of colony "dots" can be quantitated easily by comparison with standardized graphs. The dipslide is a highly accurate and sensitive tool that can be used for the diagnosis of UTI's, assessment of antimicrobial effectiveness, follow-up for presence of recurrence or relapse, and screening of high-risk individuals.