一種新型診斷培養基和快速鑒別試劑盒包括了對常見呼吸和泌尿感染的快速鑒別，這些感染與心臟疾病的有關。

近期研究揭示，常見呼吸道和泌尿道感染例如支氣管炎、肺炎和膀胱炎，能夠導致心臟病和腦卒中發作的危險升高。最大的危險出現在感染早期。因此，對導致感染微生物的早期鑒別，能夠幫助進行早期診斷以及開始進行合適的抗生素治療。

Oxoid公司(Basingstoke, UK)推出的快速診斷產品是Oxoid Dryspot Pneumo檢測方法，該檢測能夠對肺炎鏈球菌感染進行快速簡便的篩查，該鏈球菌是細菌性肺炎最主要的致病菌。

同樣Oxoid Chromogenic UTI(尿道感染)培養基使用顏色來提高對常見泌尿道感染主要微生物的鑒別。通過對單個培養皿進行特異的簡便的觀察，Oxoid UTI培養基減少了傳代培養的需要和冗長的鑒別程序，即使在樣本中存在不止一種微生物。

Diagnosing Infections Linked to Heart Attacks
 
New diagnostic culture media and rapid identification kits include products for a speedier identification of common respiratory and urinary infections, which are being associated with an increased risk of heart problems.

Recent research has revealed that inflammation caused by common respiratory and urinary tract infections such as bronchitis, pneumonia, and cystitis may contribute to a higher risk of heart attack and stroke. The greatest risk appears to occur in the earliest stage of infection. Thus, rapid identification of the organisms responsible for infections can assist the early diagnosis and prompt administration of appropriate antimicrobial therapy.

Among the rapid tests available from Oxoid (Basingstoke, UK) is the Oxoid Dryspot Pneumo test, which provides a fast and simple screening for Streptococcus pneumoniae, a primary cause of bacterial pneumonia.

Also, the Oxoid Chromogenic UTI (urinary tract infection) Medium uses color to enhance the presumptive identification of the main organisms that are responsible for urinary tract infections. By providing this specific and easily-visualized differentiation on a single culture plate, Oxoid UTI Medium reduces the need for sub-culturing and lengthy identification procedures, even when more than one species is present in the sample