Urine collection
STERILE
Urine samples were collected by medical staff in the morning in the outpatient clinic or provided by patients themselves following self-sampling of first morning midstream clean-catch urine specimens. Samples after collection were kept refrigerated for maximum 2 hours and split into 10 aliquots of 1 ml each: 5 were sent to the hospital laboratory while the other 5 were frozen at -80°C using sterile glycerol at a final 15% (vol/vol) concentration. The latter samples were used for antibiotic susceptibility assessment with the MBS AST-POCT after central laboratory results were available, and in all cases within 48 hours. Supplementary aliquots were stored at -80°C in case of the need of further verification analysis.