Urine Master Mixes

Urine is an ideal clinical specimen because it is excreted in large quantities is non-invasive, and it can be self-sampled. Currently, urine specimens are used in the diagnosis and management of infectious diseases (including STDs), hormone and metabolic disorders, renal diseases, bladder cancer, urinary tract infections (UTIs), and for monitoring recreational drug use.

The most common infections are urinary tract infections (UTIs), most commonly Escherichia coli, Protus mirabilis, Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus saprophyticus and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Several other infections can be diagnosed by urine DNA and urine RNA tests including community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), legionellosis, tuberculosis, congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection, and arboviruses, such as Chikungunya virus, dengue virus and Zika virus. Parasites can also be diagnosed from urine testing for the detection of eggs from Schistosoma haematobium. Furthermore, urine has been used for screening of different sexually transmitted diseases (STD) such as Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Chlamydia trachomatis.

With Meridian’s direct urine master mixes, you can see down to less than 10 copies.

That will depend on the bacteria, for some bacteria you may not need to do any pre-treatment, however some may require heating to 95°C for 5 min and for some tougher bacteria, a Proteinase K step (Proteinase K 55°C for 15 min and then at 98°C for 5 min) or using a non-ionic detergent (such as Tween-20 to final concentration of 0.2% followed by incubation at room temperature for 10 min) may be necessary.

We do not see a performance difference between the two master mixes.

They are compatible with standard cycling conditions and can also be used with very fast cycling conditions, however some assay development may be required for the volume of urine that is needed for a molecular assay.

It is stable for up to 2 years at ambient temperature if correctly stored in sealed pouches.