Evaluation of a new chromogenic agar medium for the identification of urinary tract pathogens.

This study evaluated the performance of CPS ID2 (bioMérieux) compared to that of conventionally used selective agar for the identification of bacteria responsible for urinary tract infections. This medium detects bacterial enzymes using chromogenic substrates. Two hundred and nineteen samples of urine were tested in order to evaluate new CPS ID2 in comparison to blood agar and MacConkey agar. According to our results, the CPS ID2 agar is an easy, rapid and sensitive method for the screening of colonies suspected of being Escherichia coli, reducing the number of biochemical tests needed. Also, enterococci and Proteae can be easily detected. Other micro-organisms require further identification. The greatest value of this medium is the accurate identification of polymicrobial cultures.