Comparison of CHROMagar Orientation versus CLED (cystine–lactose–electrolyte-deficient) Agar, VITEK-XL and MALDI-TOF in a Tertiary Laboratory Setting Processing Urine Culture Samples at Dr Lal Path Labs, Delhi
Aims: To comparatively assess the performance and evaluate the advantages of CHROMagar orientation vs. CLED agar for the detection and enumeration of the most common yeast, gram-positive and gram-negative urinary tract pathogens. Methods: Five hundred and eighty-seven fully characterized isolates (372Gram-negative bacteria, 106 Gram-positive bacteria, 13 Candida spp. and 96 mixed culture) were used to test for accuracy of organism identification. To assess isolation rates of common urine isolates and ability to detect mixed cultures, 2500urine samples were tested by parallel inoculation on the two best-performing media, CHROMagar orientation and CLED. Results: Of the 2550 urine specimens, 587(23.1%) yielded positive cultures, of which 491(83.6%) were pure cultures and 96(16.4%) were mixed cultures. CLED, CHROMagar orientation agar gave detection rates of 78.8% and 99.4% respectively.
