Technology assessment of automated urine particle flow cytometry

The examination of the urine remains one of the most commonly performed tests in clinical laboratory practice. For over a century, standard microscopy analysis of urine has been considered as a golden standard. However, critical evaluation of sediment analysis has revealed a number of significant flaws, particularly in relation to centrifugation, the transfer error from the centrifugation tube to the microscope and the relatively high counting errors due to the relatively low number of elements counted. Recently, urine particle flow cytometry (UFC) has become available as an interesting alternative method in urinalysis. The present article reviews the analytical performance of UFC and the utility of this novel analytical technique in the clinical routine laboratory.