Frequency of microbiology tests requested by primary care surgeries in Oxfordshire between 2008 and 2018
| Test group | Tests | Test results | Patients | ||||
| N | % | Positive* | Mixed growth | Equivocal | N | %† | |
| All tests | 1 596 752 | 100 | 393 905 | 100 | |||
| Culture±microscopy | |||||||
| Urine | 673 612 | 42.2 | 26.7 | 25.6 | 3.05 | 247 356 | 62.8 |
| Genital | 108 861 | 6.82 | 27.8 | – | – | 69 055 | 17.5 |
| Surface swab | 68 288 | 4.28 | 41.1 | – | – | 48 854 | 12.4 |
| Faecal | 68 240 | 4.27 | 9.74 | – | – | 55 032 | 14.0 |
| Antenatal urine | 57 423 | 3.60 | 6.57 | 25.4 | 1.79 | 37 923 | 9.63 |
| Dermatophyte | 24 093 | 1.51 | 26.8 | – | – | 21 029 | 5.34 |
| Pus | 4933 | 0.31 | 35.0 | 3.26 | – | 4332 | 1.10 |
| Respiratory tract | 3211 | 0.20 | 93.6 | – | – | 1671 | 0.42 |
| Tests targeting specific organisms | Positive | ||||||
| Hepatitis B | 116 366 | 7.29 | Surface antigen: 0.59 (470/79811) antenatal, 3.15 (956/30359) non-antenatal | 80 658 | 20.5 | ||
| HIV | 99 436 | 6.23 | 0.56 | 67 467 | 17.1 | ||
| Treponema pallidum (syphilis) | 84 686 | 5.30 | 0.06 | 58 002 | 14.7 | ||
| Chlamydia | 76 711 | 4.80 | 2.35 | 55 682 | 14.1 | ||
| Rubella (antibody) | 76 556 | 4.79 | 96.5 | 51 705 | 13.1 | ||
| Helicobacter pylori | 51 137 | 3.20 | 20.0 | 45 456 | 11.5 | ||
| Hepatitis C | 30 910 | 1.94 | Antibody: 5.52 (1633/29561) RNA 51.3 (779/1519) | 25 468 | 6.47 | ||
| Cryptosporidium/Giardia | 22 422 | 1.40 | 2.45 | 19 076 | 4.84 | ||
| Clostridioides difficile | 12 975 | 0.81 | 5.70 | 10 489 | 2.66 | ||
| Gastrointestinal bacterial panel‡ | 10 015 | 0.63 | 15.6 | 9202 | 2.34 | ||
| Epstein-Barr virus | 6877 | 0.43 | EBNA IgG: 70.5 (4649/6592) VCA IgG: 47.6 (1033/2172) VCA IgM: 26.6 (568/2136) | 6570 | 1.67 | ||
*Positivity in cultures reflects the detection of one or more organisms in the specimen provided, and should not necessarily be interpreted as an indication of pathogenicity.
†Percentages may not add to total as patients could have more than a single test of a different type during the study period.
‡An enteric pathogen panel that tests for Shigella spp, Salmonella spp, Campylobacter spp and shiga toxin genes (for the detection of shigatoxigenic Escherichia coli such as O157).
EBNA, Epstein-Barr virus Nuclear Antigen; VCA, viral capsid antigen.