Urine screening: an alternative to urine cultures

Urine cultures represent one of the most commonly submitted specimens to a microbiology laboratory. In an attempt to manage effectively this type of specimen, Bac-T-Screen (BTS), nitrate and leukoestrase test were performed on all clean catch urine specimens sent for culture. Three hundred and four specimens were screened by these methods. The BTS, by itself, had the highest sensitivity, and specificity (92 percent and 81 percent, respectively) and the lowest false negative rate (9.8 percent) of the three tests. A combination BTS/leukoestrase test increased specificity (99 percent), but the sensitivity was only 73 percent.