Point-of-care rapid immunoassay performed on voided urine, refrigerated up to 24 hours, accurately detects bacteriuria.

Objective: To collect voided urine from dogs with clinical signs of lower UTI and determine the diagnostic performance of a commercially available rapid immunoassay (RIA) immediately after urine collection and after refrigeration at 4 and 24 hours.
Animals: 40 client-owned dogs.
Methods: Aerobic urine culture was performed on urine collected by cystocentesis. Urine samples were collected by voiding, and the RIA performed in triplicate within 30 minutes (time 0) and again in triplicate after 4 and 24 hours of refrigeration. Test precision and agreement between culture results and RIA results at each time point were determined, and factors possibly associated with false results investigated.
Results: 14 of 40 dogs (35%) had UTI verified by aerobic urine culture, and all had positive RIA. Three dogs had false positive RIA results. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of the RIA were 100, 88%, 82%, and 100%, respectively, and results were not different after 4 and 24 hours of refrigeration. Precision was excellent.
Clinical Relevance: This point-of-care RIA, performed on voided urine refrigerated up to 24 hours, rapidly and accurately identifies bacteriuria in dogs with lower urinary tract clinical signs, inexpensively.