Does transportation affect urine and bacterial viability?
Customers often ask about the preferred method of transporting urine samples to the laboratory for culture, and the effect of transport time and storage temperature on the viability of organisms. To address these questions, the following study was performed: Urine samples with pyuria (n=18) submitted to Antech’s Houston laboratory were divided into several aliquots. One aliquot was inoculated immediately onto blood/MacConkey agar and cultured aerobically for 72 hours in the Houston laboratory. The urine aliquots were also placed into 3 tubes: RTT, grey top urine culture tube (Transport Kit), and Copan Swab for transport to Antech’s Irvine laboratory, where they were stored at 4-8C and at room temperature. They were next inoculated onto blood/MacConkey agar for aerobic culture and examined after 24, 48 and 72 hours. Fourteen urine samples cultured positive for bacteria and 4 were negative.
A- Customers often ask about the preferred method of transporting urine samples to the laboratory for culture, and the effect of transport time and storage temperature on the viability of organisms. To address these questions, the following study was performed: Urine samples with pyuria (n=18) submitted to Antech’s Houston laboratory were divided into several aliquots. One aliquot was inoculated immediately onto blood/MacConkey agar and cultured aerobically for 72 hours in the Houston laboratory. The urine aliquots were also placed into 3 tubes: RTT, grey top urine culture tube (Transport Kit), and Copan Swab for transport to Antech’s Irvine laboratory, where they were stored at 4-8°C and at room temperature. They were next inoculated onto blood/MacConkey agar for aerobic culture and examined after 24, 48 and 72 hours. Fourteen urine samples cultured positive for bacteria and 4 were negative. There was no observed effect of storage time, storage temperature, or type of storage tube on
