ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the most common infectious diseases occurring
in either the community or healthcare setting. Turnaround time for urine culture is
about 24 h, and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) requires another 24 h.
Consequently, initial antibiotic therapy is mostly empirical.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was conducted at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad. Turbid
urine samples which showed pus cells and Gram‑negative (GN) bacilli of single morphotype
were included. The turbidity of the urine was adjusted to 0.5 McFarland and uploaded
directly in the VITEK 2 identification (ID) GN and N‑280 panel for AST. The specimen
was also inoculated on CHROMagar, and the ID and AST of the isolates from the agar
plate were repeated on VITEK 2, and the results were compared.
RESULTS: Out of 844 turbid urines screened, 62 met the inclusion criteria. Escherichia coli was the most common isolate (71.9%). Complete agreement for ID was 80.7%, misidentified
were 12.2%, and unidentified were 7%. Complete agreement with AST was 94.3%, very
major errors 0.5%, major errors 2.2%, and minor errors 3%.
Conclusions: With a 94.3% agreement for AST and a reduced turnaround time by 24 h, the direct
inoculation had a potential clinical benefit for initiating timely and appropriate
antibiotic therapy for UTI.
Keywords
Complete agreement - major errors - minor errors - very major errors - VITEK 2 IDGN
- VITEK 2 N280
