TY - JOUR T1 - Urine Culture Collected from Gel-Based Diapers: Developing a Novel Experimental Laboratory Method JF - The Journal of the American Board of Family Practice JO - J Am Board Fam Med SP - 91 LP - 95 DO - 10.3122/jabfm.17.2.91 VL - 17 IS - 2 AU - Pesach Shvartzman AU - Yussuf Nasri Y1 - 2004/03/01 UR - http://www.jabfm.org/content/17/2/91.abstract N2 - Background: Urinary tract infection diagnosis is based on urine culture, taken from a midstream collection. Obtaining samples in this manner is difficult in elderly patients suffering from incontinence and in infants.Objectives: (1) Develop a method for urine collection using gel-based diapers and (2) compare culture results from gel-based diapers with those of the same urine, examined by accepted methods.Methods: Urine was collected and cultured by standard bacteriologic techniques at the microbiology laboratory of Soroka Medical Center, Beer-Sheva, Israel. Gel-based diapers were manually dampened with the same urine samples, and samples from diapers were cultured 0 to 3 hours after dampening.Results: Comparison showed good correlation between direct urine cultures and cultures obtained from gel based diapers (R = 1.000). Total sensitivity was 100% and specificity 97%.Conclusions: (1) Urine can be cultured from gel-based diapers and (2) a larger sample of in vivo trials will be needed to make this technique clinically applicable in an outpatient setting. ER -