Automated urinalysis - Evaluation of the Sysmex UF-50

We assessed the Sysmex UF-50 for reproducibility of results and carryover r ate by performing between- and within-run precision analyses on 315 urine s amples, evaluated the feasibility of using the UF-50 to measure urinary, ce llular and noncellular components by comparing results from the UF-50 with results of manual urinalysis using the Kova system, and performed side-by-s ide comparison of the within-run reproducibility from the UF-50, the UF-100 , and the Kova system. Results from the UF-50 and UF-100 were highly reprod ucible, and the carryover rate was 0.5% or less for the urinary components. In between-run precision assays, the coefficients of variation for UF-50 r esults for all cellular components were less than 10%. The agreement (gamma statistics) between values from the UF-50 and the Kova system was excellen t for RBC, WBC, and bacterial counts. The cell counts from the UF-50 for RB Cs, WBCs, epithelial cells, and bacteria were 52%, 63%, 54%, and 110%, resp ectively, of those measured by manual urinalysis. The UF-50 performed quant itative analysis in 72 seconds, compared with 330 seconds for manual method s. The UF-50 is suitable for the first screening to detect hematuria, pyuri a, and bacteriuria.