Emergency physicians versus laboratory technicians: Are the urinalysis and microscopy results comparable? A pilot study

Sarah Kerr, Cindy Marshall, Douglas Sinclair

Producción científica: Contribución a una revistaArtículorevisión exhaustiva

7 Citas (Scopus)

Resumen

In the literature to date, there are no studies that directly evaluate microscopic urine examination results obtained by a physician compared to those of a trained laboratory technician, our purpose in undertaking this study was to determine whether there would be comparable results obtained by these two groups. The study took place in an Emergency Medicine Department with 45,000 visits annually. Each urine sample obtained on patients presenting to the Emergency Department was divided into two lots: one was sent to the laboratory and the other was analyzed by the emergency physician. A comparison of both dipstick and microscopic results by physician and laboratory staff was then made using sensitivity, specificity, and Kappa analysis. Statistical analysis of the data revealed close agreement between the emergency physician and laboratory technician with respect to the following components of urinalysis: red blood cell urinalysis and microscopy, leukocyte esterase, and nitrite testing. Microscopy for white cells and bacteria and testing for proteinuria were not in close agreement. Urinalysis by emergency physicians is comparable to laboratory technicians for a number of the testing components. However, in this limited pilot study, emergency physicians were not able to consistently perform urinalysis for the laboratory standard.

Idioma originalEnglish
Páginas (desde-hasta)399-404
Número de páginas6
PublicaciónJournal of Emergency Medicine
Volumen17
N.º3
DOI
EstadoPublished - may. 1999
Publicado de forma externa

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

  • Emergency Medicine

PubMed: MeSH publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Journal Article

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