Backgrounds Molecular urine devices are not compatible for all molecular assays and are not good bacteria culture. Copan produces the UriSwab (US), a LBM device used with the WASP automation. It’s a leak-proof screw-cap tube with 3 treated sponges on a plastic stick to absorb and retain urine during transport and prevent bacterial overgrowth. UriSwab can be used for urine self-collection for STD screening by culture and molecular assays. Urine collected in dry container (DC) were compared to US for detection of Trichomonas vaginalis (TV), Mycoplasma hominis (MH), Mycoplasma genitalium (MG), Chlamydia trachomatis (CT), Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) and Ureaplasma urealyticum (UU).

Methods Duplicate urines were collected to-date from 153 patients attending a Milan STD clinic. One urine was collected in DC and another in US. For the DC, 5 ml urine was placed in a tube, and both, DC tube and US were centrifuged at 3000 g/20 min. After discarding the supernatant, the cell pellets were eluted in PBS and nucleic acid was extracted with the QIAamp DNA Mini kit (Qiagen). 3 ul purified sample was tested with the Seeplex^® STD6 ACE assay (Seegene Inc).

Results In the 153 urine, DC and US had 90 negative and 52 positive concordant (91.25%) and 9 discordant (9.75%) results; positive included 10 CT, 11 MH, 8 UU, 5 NG and 3 MG. In the discordant, DC had 3 positive missed by US while US had 4 positive missed by DC. No inhibition or TV was detected, the study is-ongoing.

Conclusions Good agreement was found between the Copan US and the DC for storing urines for STIs with the Seeplex^® STD6 ACE. The US is leak-proof, easy-to-transport, store urines for STIs with molecular assays, prevents overgrowth, stabilises bacteria for culture and facilitates self-collection for STI screening.