Gender's equality in evaluation of urine particles: Results of a multicenter study of the Italian Urinalysis Group.
OBJECTIVE
We performed a multicenter study to calculate the upper reference limits (URL) for urine particle quantification in mid-stream samples by using automated urine analyzers.


METHODS
Two laboratories tested 283 subjects using a Sysmex UF-100, two other laboratories tested 313 subjects using Sysmex UF-1000i, whereas two other laboratories tested 267 subjects using Iris IQ®200.


RESULTS
The URLs of UF-100 in females and males were 7.8/μL and 6.7/μL for epithelial cells (EC), 11.1/μL and 9.9/μL for red blood cells (RBC), 10.2/μL and 9.7/μL for white blood cells (WBC), and 0.85/μL and 0.87/μL for cylinders (CAST). The URLs of UF-1000i in females and males were 7.6/μL and 7.1/μL for EC, 12.2/μL and 11.1/μL for RBC, 11.9/μL and 11.7/μL for WBC, and 0.88/μL and 0.86/μL for CAST. The URLs of Iris IQ®200 in females and males were 7.8/μL and 6.6/μL for EC, 12.4/μL and 10.1/μL for RBC, 10.9/μL and 9.9/μL for WBC, and 1.1/μL and 1.0/μL for CAST.


CONCLUSIONS
The URLs obtained in this study were comparable to the lowest values previously reported in the literature. Moreover, no gender-related difference was observed, and analyzer-specific upper reference limits were very similar.
Servizio di Medicina di Laboratorio, Ospedali di Este e Monselice (PD), Italy.
Fabio
F
Manoni
Gianluca
G
Gessoni
Maria Grazia
MG
Alessio
Alberta
A
Caleffi
Graziella
G
Saccani
Maria Grazia
MG
Epifani
Agostino
A
Tinello
Tatiana
T
Zorzan
Sara
S
Valverde
Marco
M
Caputo
Giuseppe
G
Lippi
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001322:Autoanalysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012016:Reference Values; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D016482:Urinalysis; D055815:Young Adult
Automation; CAST; CASTS/cylinders; CI 90%; Confidence Index 90%; EC; IQR; Inter Quartile Range; Multicentre study; RBC; Red Blood Cells/erythrocytes; Reference values; Squamous Epithelial Cells; URL; Upper Reference Limits; Urine particles; WBC; White Blood Cells/leukocytes