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CompletedNCT03190421Updated Jun 16, 2020

Expanded Quantitative Urinary Culture (EQUC) vs Standard Culture (SUC) Techniques in the Clinical Care

An interventional study of Expanded Urinary Culture and Standard Urine Culture (SUC) in Urinary Tract Infections, sponsored by Loyola University. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to female participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2020-06-16.

Sponsored by Loyola University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Diagnostic

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
225
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
Female
01

Study summary

This purpose of this study is to see if expanded urine culture techniques used in the laboratory improve the clinical care of women over standard urine culture techniques.

Read the detailed description

The investigators request permission to recruit 225 women who respond "yes" to the question "do you feel you have a urinary tract infection". All participants will provide baseline urine specimens obtained by transurethral catheter (to avoid vulvo-vaginal contamination) and will complete a UTISA questionnaire to assess their current urinary tract symptoms. Participants will be randomized to the SUC treatment algorithm or the EQUC treatment algorithm. Treating physicians will receive either the SUC results or the EQUC results from the clinical laboratory and the results will be part of their clinical record. Treating physicians will follow the Loyola FPMRS treatment algorithm. Women in the study will also give consent for us to contact them using email, text messaging or phone call within 7-10 days after "treatment plan" has been implemented. The treatment plan options will include no treatment if the culture results show no pathogenic bacteria. All participants will be queried 7-10 days after their treatment plan (by email or text) "do you feel you continue to have a urinary tract infection". Women who respond "yes' will be asked to return for a second urine specimen which is our standard protocol. The second urine specimen will be analyzed using EQUC culture techniques only. Again, a treatment plan will be developed by the attending physician and the patient participant will be queried 7-10 days after the plan is implemented.

02

Conditions studied

  • Urinary Tract Infections
03

In context

Infections

6,687 studies on the registry are indexed under Infections; 807 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 225 is above the median of 120 across 4,200 interventional studies indexed under Infections.

Browse Infections studies →

Lead sponsor

Loyola University is the lead sponsor of 132 studies on the registry; 15 are open to participants now.

Of its 26 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 23 (88%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
Female
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

  • A "yes" answer to the screening question "do you feel you have a UTI"?
  • Non-pregnant women ages 18 years or older
  • Agreement to respond to a text or email question 7-10 days after treatment plan for their UTI (note: the treatment plan may include "no treatment").

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Women currently on antibiotics
  • Patients who cannot communicate or read in English
  • Patients under the age of 18
  • Pregnant patients
  • Women with an indwelling catheter and intermittent self-catheterization
  • Men
  • Urine obtained via the "clean catch method" (i.e. voided urine)
  • Women who refuse to be catheterized
  • Women who cannot or will not agree to respond to an email or text message 7-10 days after treatment plan is initiated.
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Diagnostic
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
225 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Expanded Urinary Culture (EQUC)

    Participants in this arm will receive the expanded urine culture

    Diagnostic Test: Expanded Urinary Culture

  • Active comparator
    Standard Urine Culture (SUC)

    Participants in this arm will receive the standard urine culture

    Diagnostic Test: Standard Urine Culture (SUC)

Interventions

  • Diagnostic testExpanded Urinary Culture

    involves the inoculation of 100X (0.1mL) more urine onto diverse types of media (BAP, chocolate agar, colistin and nalidixic acid (CNA) agar, CDC anaerobe 5% BAP) with incubation in more environments and temperatures (5% CO2 at 35°C for 48 h, aerobic conditions at 35°C and 30°C for 48 h, Campy gas mixture (5% O2, 10% CO2, 85% N) or anaerobic conditions at 35°C for 48 h). The level of detection for EQUC is 10 CFU/mL, represented by 1 colony of growth on any of the plates. EQUC is designed to isolate a broad array of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, including anaerobes and fastidious bacteria that grow slowly.

  • Diagnostic testStandard Urine Culture (SUC)

    involves inoculation of 0.001 mL of urine onto 5% sheep blood agar plate (BAP) and MacConkey agar plate with the plates being incubated aerobically at 35°C for 24 h. Thus, the level of detection for standard culture is 103 CFU/mL, represented by 1 colony of growth on either plate. Standard culture is designed specifically to grow Gram-negative rods, especially UPEC.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Compare UTI symptom resolution rates in women with symptoms of UTI who are treated based on EQUC versus SUC results.

    Using the FPMRS treatment algorithms (see appendix I \& II Standard Urine Culture Treatment and Expanded Urine Culture Treatment Algorithms), attending physicians will treat participants based on their randomization to EQUC versus SUC. Following a 3-5 day standard course of treatment (which may include no antibiotics if the culture is negative), participants will be queried 7-10 days "do you continue to have UTI symptoms". Women who report "no" will be categorized as successful treatment, women who respond "yes" will be categorized as treatment failures.

    Time frame: 4 weeks

Secondary outcomes

  1. Revise the EQUC treatment algorithm.

    The EQUC treatment algorithm was based on known uropathogens that we had previously identified as most likely to be symptomatic. During the course of this work we may identify other pathogens that are present and causing symptoms. These organisms will be identified and added to the treatment algorithm. This interim analysis is planned and was part of the statistical calculations to determine sample size.

    Time frame: 6 months

  2. Identify the symptom profile associated with specific organisms.

    Using the UTISA questionnaire, we will perform a symptoms association study with specific bacteria.

    Time frame: 1 year

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Loyola University Medical Center
    Maywood, Illinois 60153, United States
08

References and documents

Publications

  • KASS EH. Asymptomatic infections of the urinary tract. Trans Assoc Am Physicians. 1956;69:56-64. No abstract available. PubMed 13380946 ↗
  • Maskell R, Pead L, Allen J. The puzzle of "urethral syndrome": a possible answer? Lancet. 1979 May 19;1(8125):1058-9. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(79)92953-2. PubMed 86778 ↗
  • Yuan S, Cohen DB, Ravel J, Abdo Z, Forney LJ. Evaluation of methods for the extraction and purification of DNA from the human microbiome. PLoS One. 2012;7(3):e33865. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0033865. Epub 2012 Mar 23. PubMed 22457796 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Jun 16, 2020, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03190421
Lead sponsor
Loyola University
Responsible party
Elizabeth Mueller (M.D., Professor, Loyola University) — Principal investigator
First posted
Jun 16, 2017
Start date
Jun 15, 2017
Primary completion
Mar 30, 2020
Completion
Apr 30, 2020
Last update
Jun 16, 2020

Study contacts

Elizabeth Mueller, MD
principal investigator · Loyola University

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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