The Diagnostic Efficacy of Rapid Urine Sediment Fluorescence Staining in Urinary Tract Infections: An Exploratory Study

Objective

To investigate rapid and early diagnostic approaches for urinary tract infections (UTIs).

Methods

Coincidence rates, sensitivities, and specificities of fungal fluorescence staining for fungal detection were calculated. Additionally, the positive rate of cellular fluorescence staining was compared with bacterial urine culture, with a focus on the increasing correlation between fluorescently stained bacteria proportions and the concordance between methods. Furthermore, diagnostic performance for detecting cocci and bacilli via histocyte fluorescence staining was evaluated. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analyses were conducted to determine the diagnostic accuracy of urine sediment fluorescence staining for fungal and bacterial UTIs.

Results

Fungal fluorescence staining of urine sediment demonstrated a coincidence rate of 95.90%, sensitivity of 94.44%, and specificity of 96.05%. The positivity of cellular fluorescence staining exceeded that of bacterial culture (P = .014), and an enhanced agreement between the 2 methods was observed with a rise in the proportion of stained bacteria. For histocyte fluorescence staining in identifying cocci and bacilli, coincidence rates were 76.92% and 74.36%, sensitivities were 51.85% and 73.85%, and specificities reached 82.43% and 88.18%, respectively. The ROC curve areas for diagnosing fungal and bacterial UTIs using urine sediment fluorescence staining were 0.952 and 0.87, respectively.

Conclusion

Urine sediment fluorescence staining offers promise as a rapid diagnostic tool for UTIs, demonstrating high sensitivity and specificity for fungal detection and a competitive performance in bacterial identification when compared to standard culture methods. These findings highlight the potential utility of this technique in clinical settings for prompt and accurate UTI diagnosis.