Urine cultures are amongst the highest volume tests run in clinical microbiology laboratories and usually require considerable manual labor to perform. This study analyzed the APAS Independence Automated Plate Reader System's ability to expedite quality results while reducing manual steps required to process urine cultures by comparing its performance to that of the standard-of-care (SOC) for processing urine cultures. The APAS Independence System provides an automated image analysis using artificial intelligence to interpret growth from urine culture plates and sorts them based on the presence or absence of significant growth.

This study performed duplicate urine cultures for 1,519 specimens over a 4-month period and evaluated each using our SOC and the APAS Independence system. The APAS Independence growth interpretations, including differences in enumeration and growth descriptions were compared to those of the laboratory's manual SOC in a blinded manner. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) of the pathogens recovered by both methods were also performed using microbroth dilution with the BD Phoenix instrument, with an ultimate view to assess the impact of an APAS-implemented workflow on turnaround-times for cultures with AST results.

The study demonstrated that the APAS Independence System has the potential to reduce manual steps while maintaining the identity and antimicrobial susceptibilities of urinary pathogens. The APAS Independence workflow resulted in reduced hands-on-time for processing urine specimens with the potential for added FTE savings.

Poster Presentation: University of California San Diego

‍Conference: ASM Microbe 2022, Washington, DC

‍Date: June 2022

‍Authors: Kuo, P., Chiu, M., Lecrone, K., Garcia, A., Ramos, P., Barba, R. and Pride, D.T.

‍Citation: Kuo, P., Chiu, M., Lecrone, K., Garcia, A., Ramos, P., Barba, R. and Pride, D.T. 2022. Comparison of the APAS Independence automated plate reader system with manual standard-of-care for processing urine culture specimens. ASM Microbe 2022. Washington, DC.