Potential clinical application of an automated fluorescent microbial cell counter in the detection of urinary tract infection

BACKGROUND: Urinary tract infections (UTI) account for millions of office visits and approximately 400 000 hospital admissions every year in the United States; as a result, the cost burden of UTI in the USA is estimated at approximately $2.8 billion. There is a great deal of interest in finding newer, faster, and more reliable methods for diagnosing UTI as compared to the standard urine culture. METHODS: An automated fluorescent microbial cell counter was used to compare urine samples found to be positive for Escherichia coli UTI via cell culturing (n = 11) with UTI‐negative samples (n = 10). RESULTS: Patients with a positive urine culture had significantly higher cell count results using the microbial cell counter (1.01 × 10(8) cells/mL) as compared to the negative samples (2.35 × 10(6) cells/mL; P = .0022). CONCLUSIONS: These observations suggest that automated microbial cell counters may serve as a rapid, objective method for the detection of bacteriuria in urine samples submitted for evaluation of suspected UTI.