Abstract
A commercial method (RAPIDEC ur; bioMerieux UK Ltd, Basingstoke) and an in-house scheme based on conventional tests were compared for the identification of 179 commonly encountered gram-negative urinary pathogens. The methods identified correctly to genus level 97% and 84% of organisms, respectively. RAPIDEC ur was superior at identifying Escherichia coli, due to the detection of beta-glucuronidase activity, but less cost-effective than the in-house scheme.