Background: So far, the validity of urine dipslides has been studied only under optimal conditions, which may not reflect the situation in daily practice.
Objective: We studied the validity of the urine dipslide as performed under daily practice conditions and assessed the influence of the incubation period (24 h versus 48 h) on validity.
Methods: Fresh urine samples of patients with signs/symptoms of a possible urinary tract infection (UTI) were examined in general practice via a nitrite test, a urine sediment and a dipslide. A second dipslide was inoculated and sent to the hospital microbiology laboratory for culture. This culture acted as gold standard. We calculated the sensitivity and specificity of the tests performed.
Results: Of the 273 patient episodes included, 62% had a UTI (166 of 268 cultures). The sensitivity of the dipslide performed in daily general practice was 73% and the specificity was 94%.
Conclusion: The validity of the dipslide read under practice conditions is lower than under optimal conditions. Actions to improve performance are needed. Nonetheless, using the dipslide instead of the sediment as a second step after the nitrite test would improve the diagnostic work-up of UTI.