Reincubation of culture-negative urines for an additional 20 hours does not identify additional UTI cases

INTRODUCTION: The question of whether a single day of incubation is sufficient for urine cultures has been a matter of debate. AIM: The aim of this study was to investigate the potential benefit of prolonged incubation for initially culture-negative urines. METHODOLOGY: Eight hundred and twelve urine specimens with no growth after incubation for 20 h were incubated for an additional 20 h to detect slower growing uropathogenic organisms. RESULTS: This study included a considerable number of urine cultures from immunocompromised and/or kidney-transplanted patients. For 99.9 % of the specimens, there was no difference in the interpretation of results. CONCLUSION: Twenty hours of incubation did not have any negative effect on the detection of uropathogens.