title: The standardization of urine particle counting in medical laboratories--a Polish experience with the EQA programme.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Given the common problems with the standardization of urine particle counting methods and the great variability in the results obtained by Polish laboratories under international Labquality External Quality Assessment (EQA), we initiated educational recovery activities.
  
  
  METHODS
  Detailed instructions on how to perform the standardized examination were sent to EQA participants, as was a questionnaire forms which enabled information to be gathered in respect to the procedures being applied. Laboratory results were grouped according to the method declared on the EQA 'Result' form or according to a manual examination procedure established on the basis of the questionnaire. The between-laboratory CVs for leukocyte and erythrocyte counts were calculated for each group and compared using the Mann-Whitney test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Significantly lower between-laboratory CVs (p = 0.03) were achieved for leukocyte counting among the laboratories that analysed control specimens in accordance with standardized procedures as compared with those which used non-standardized procedures. We also observed a visible lower variability for erythrocyte counting. Unfortunately despite our activities, only a few of the Polish laboratories applied the standardized examination procedures, and only 29% of the results could have been considered to be standardized (16% - manual methods, 13% - automated systems).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The standardization of urine particle counting methods continues to be a significant problem in medical laboratories and requires further recovery activities which can be conducted using the EQA scheme.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Chemistry, Medical University of Gdańsk, Debinki 7, Gdańsk, Poland.
authors.forename: Agnieszka
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cwiklińska
authors.forename: Judyta
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kąkol
authors.forename: Agnieszka
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kuchta
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kortas-Stempak
authors.forename: Anastasis
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pacanis
authors.forename: Jerzy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rogulski
authors.forename: Małgorzata
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wróblewska
mesh_terms: D002452:Cell Count / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000166:cytology; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D006801:Humans; D007753:Laboratories / Q000592:standards*; D007962:Leukocytes / Q000166:cytology; D017056:Medical Laboratory Personnel / Q000193:education; D011044:Poland; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016482:Urinalysis / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D014556:Urine / Q000166:cytology*