title: Interrater agreement in the interpretation of microscopic urinalysis.
abstract: To determine the reliability of specimen interpretation by outpatient laboratories, 150 consecutive specimens from three family practice centers were analyzed by either two laboratory technicians (n = 99) or two family physicians (n = 51). The results showed good to excellent agreement for contamination (defined as five or more epithelial cells per high-power field) or significant pyuria (five or more white blood cells per high-power field) or hematuria (five or more red blood cells per high-power field). Agreement between laboratory technicians did not differ significantly from agreement between physicians for the interpretation of contamination or pyuria, but for hematuria, agreement was higher between technicians (P = .02). These results suggest that outpatient interpretation of microscopic urine specimens shows levels of interrater agreement similar to or better than other tests that have been evaluated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, USA.
authors.forename: W J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Hueston
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fields
authors.forename: R R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: McClaflin
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Eilers
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D015588:Observer Variation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D016482:Urinalysis / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*