Urine culture collected from gel-based diapers: developing a novel experimental laboratory method

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.