Comparative evaluation of five chromogenic media for detection, enumeration and identification of urinary tract pathogens.

Five chromogenic agar plates--CPS ID2 medium (bioMérieux, France), CHROMagar Orientation medium (Becton Dickinson, France), UriSelect3 medium (Sanofi Diagnostics Pasteur, France), Rainbow Agar UTI medium (Biolog, USA) and Chromogenic UTI medium (Oxoid, Germany)--for the detection, enumeration and direct identification of urinary tract pathogens were compared using 443 urine specimens at two hospital laboratories. The enumeration of microorganisms was consistent on the five media for 403 of the 477 (84.5%) microorganisms.