title: [Urinalysis in Italy in 2006].
abstract: Urinalysis and proteinuria testing represent fundamental tests for the clinician, even though they too often lack standardization. Through the Italian Society of Nephrology Mailing List we sent a questionnaire to 282 centers, in order to assess the state of the art in Italy in the year 2006. 82% of the questionnaires were completed (nephrology laboratories: 64%, general laboratories: 36%). The questionnaire dealt with the main steps of preparation, analysis and report of urinalysis, and proteinuria / microalbuminuria measurement. 85% of the centers use first morning urine, and 7% second morning urine; only 57% of the centers supply with written instructions, 189 laboratories (82%) have only one bright field microscope, rate and time of centrifugation are very varied among centers, different units of measurement are used in reports. Few laboratories measure routinely the proteinuria / creatininuria ratio, there is no agreement on the urine sample type for microalbuminuria assay, total urinary proteins are measured through different methods. 92% of the centers is endowed with an internal quality control system, but only 47% participate in an external quality control program. These data confirm the lack of standardization for urine analysis methods and procedures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, University of Turin, Turin - Italy. massimogai@katamail.com
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gai
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lanfranco
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016482:Urinalysis / Q000592:standards*