A modern technology for a traditional culture

Urinary Tract infections (UTI’s) are considered to be one of the most common human bacterial infections second only to respiratory infections. Women are especially prone to UTI’s, 1 in 5 will develop a UTI during her lifetime. The incidence of UTI’s increases with the presence of diabetes, malformations of the urinary tract system as well as with age. UTI’s are also the most common nosocomial infections mostly linked to urethral catheters and invasive diagnostic procedures.

LIGHT SCATTERING TECHNOLOGY APPLIED TO URINE CULTURE

1. Sidecar, Alfred 60AST and HB&L are the first automated systems for the rapid urine culture with high sensitivity and specificity(1,2).
2. Using the patented technology based on light scattering they are able to monitor the intense bacteria replication activity from the inoculum step into specific culture broths providing real time growth curves.
3. Quantitative bacterial count results are reported in CFU/ml.
4. Strong positive samples are flagged after only 45 minutes of incubation. The positive threshold can be customized according to the sensitivity requirements of the laboratory and patient.
5. Three analytical protocols are available: Fast, Standard and Boric Acid setting.
6. A specific eugonic broth has been developed to guarantee optimized aerobic pathogen bacteria growth.
7. Broths are in sterile vials with pierceable hermetic seals, thus considerably reducing contaminations.
8. Samples are incubated at 37°C and constantly mixed avoiding sedimentation, flotation and growth anomalies typical of several micro-organisms.
9. Only live bacteria are detected while interference from non replicating substances such as erythrocytes, leucocytes, dead cells and salts present in the sample are eliminated during the initial zero reading.