Urine culture (UC) confirms the diagnosis of urinary tract infection (UTI) and is still considered the diagnostic 'gold standard' for pathogen identification, quantification and resistance testing. However, up to 80% of samples will not yield bacterial growth. Different techniques are currently approved for resistance testing. However, all of them are culture based and have the disadvantage of being very slow. In the field of urology, the development of drug resistance of uropathogens complicates the optimal administration of antimicrobial agents not only in the treatment, but also in the prevention of UTI before endourological and open surgical procedures. In this context, rapid identification of microbiological agents, including timely antimicrobial resistance testing (ART) is desirable. This overview presents alternative techniques (flow cytometry, PCR-based techniques, MALDI-TOF MS and microcalorimetry) to urine culture and discusses their advantages and disadvantages.
