Prospective Evaluation of Light Scatter Technology Paired with Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption IonizationTime of Flight Mass Spectrometry for Rapid Diagnosis of Urinary Tract Infections

Urinary tract infections are one of the most common reasons for health care visits. Diagnosis and optimal treatment often require a urine culture, which takes an average of 1.5 to 2 days from urine collection to results, delaying optimal therapy. Faster, but accurate, alternatives are needed. Light scatter technology has been proposed for several years as a rapid screening tool, whereby negative specimens are excluded from culture. A commercially available light scatter device, BacterioScan 216Dx (BacterioScan, Inc.), has recently been advertised for this application. Paired use of mass spectrometry (MS) for bacterial identification and automated-system-based susceptibility testing straight from the light scatter suspension might provide dramatic improvement in times to a result. The present study prospectively evaluated the BacterioScan device, with culture as the reference standard. Positive light scatter specimens were used for downstream rapid matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) MS organism identification and automated-system-based antimicrobial susceptibility testing. Prospective evaluation of 439 urine samples showed a sensitivity of 96.5%, a specificity of 71.4%, and positive and negative predictive values of 45.1% and 98.8%, respectively. MALDI-TOF MS analysis of the suspension after density-based selection yielded a sensitivity of 72.1% and a specificity of 96.9%. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing of the samples identified by MALDI-TOF MS produced an overall categorical agreement of 99.2%. Given the high sensitivity and negative predictive value of results obtained, BacterioScan 216Dx is a reasonable approach for urine screening and might produce negative results in as few as 3 h, with no downstream workup. Paired rapid identification and susceptibility testing might be useful when MALDI-TOF MS results in an organism identification, and it might decrease the time to a result by more than 24 h.