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  • Title: Using the urine dipstick to screen out unnecessary urine cultures: implementation at one facility.
    Author: Reilly P, Mills L, Bessmer D, Jimenez C, Simpson P, Burton M.
    Journal: Clin Lab Sci; 2002; 15(1):9-12. PubMed ID: 12778949.
    Abstract:
    This study examined the utility of performing urine cultures on biochemically negative urine specimens and details the implementation of a policy to cancel these cultures. Four reactions of the Multistix SG (Bayer, Elkhart IN) urine dipstick (protein, occult blood, leukocyte esterase, and nitrite) were used as biochemical indicators. A three-month retrospective study examining the results of 843 urinalysis/ urine culture pairs indicated that one-third of these cultures were probably unnecessary (negative dipstick/negative culture). Based on these results, a policy was implemented to screen those urine samples having both a urinalysis and urine culture ordered. Over a six-month period, 6,192 urine specimens were evaluated. Of these, 36% (2,260 cultures) were cancelled. Of the 3,932 samples cultured 22.4% (883) were true positives (positive dipstick/positive culture) while 31.6% (1245) had a positive dipstick but grew organisms considered contaminants. The false positive rate was 40% (positive dipstick/negative culture), and the false negative rate was 6%. Implementation of this policy reduced the number of urines cultured by 36%.
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