Evaluation of the CLINITEK ATLAS for routine macroscopic urinalysis.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the performance of a new, benchtop, fully automated urine analyzer the CLINITEK ATLAS and compare it with the URICHEM 1000 CHEMSTRIP UA analyzer. Macroscopic analysis included measurement of 8 urine analyte chemistries and specific gravity by the refractive index method (SgRl).


METHODS
The analytical performance studies conducted were calibration stability, precision (within-run and day-to-day), comparison of results of 437 fresh patient urine specimens, analysis of time performance, and problem logging over a 16-day evaluation period.


RESULTS
Satisfactory calibration reproducibility, within-run (n = 10), and day-to-day (n = 16) precision was found because results fell within the +/- one color-block by the proposed National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS) criteria. Patient results (n = 437) from the 2 analyzers giving the same color-block agreement was found to be for pH, 52%; glucose, 92%; ketones, 86%; protein, 79%; bilirubin, 97%; leukocytes, 72%; blood, 80%; and nitrite, 98%. The concordance defined by the NCCLS criteria as the agreement of results +/- one color-block between the 2 analyzers was found to be for pH, 96%; glucose, 99%; ketones, 100%; protein, 95%; bilirubin, 100%; leukocytes, 97%; and blood 86%. The SgRl determined on ATLAS was correlated with the RD-10 Rapid Density analyzer with the following results: slope = 0.97, intercept = 0.033, r = 0.94, Syx = 0.003, for a range of values from 1.002 to 1.070.


CONCLUSIONS
Our preliminary data indicate that the analytical performance, and automatable features for complete walk-away function of this analyzer can significantly increase the overall testing efficiency in the urinalysis laboratory.
Dias
V C
VC
Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
Moschopedis
T
T
Prosser
C
C
Yatscoff
R W
RW
D001663:Bilirubin / Q000652:urine; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006029:Glycosuria / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D007659:Ketones / Q000652:urine; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D011507:Proteinuria / Q000175:diagnosis; D011934:Reagent Strips; D016482:Urinalysis / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D014556:Urine / Q000737:chemistry
D007659:Ketones; D011934:Reagent Strips; D001663:Bilirubin