Guide to urinalysis instrumentation

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That workstation, Foohey says, has been available in the United States since the beginning of the year and is also for sale in Canada and Japan. “Siemens connects the UF-1000i with our Clinitek Novus urine chemistry analyzer [via] a track that moves racks of urine tubes throughout the system,” she explains. “There is no doubt that automation requires a greater upfront investment…but it pays off in shorter turnaround times, speed to diagnosis, and staffing within the lab. At the end of the day, if you don’t have the laboratorians to do the testing manually, you really don’t have a choice. Even some of our smaller-volume customers want to go to full automation.”

The Clinitek Novus automated urine chemistry analyzer, which was also introduced this year, can be loaded with up to 200 samples at a time. “The nice thing about all of our reagents is that we make them all in the same plant, and they’re all the same chemistries,” says Foohey. “So the chemistry that makes up a ketone pad for visual reading is the same technology that is in our high-volume Clinitek Novus analyzer, so you get very consistent results regardless of where you’re running the product.”

Arkray, too, has been focusing on the marriage of automation and urinalysis. “Laboratories are seeking automation solutions to decrease manual tasks such as urine microscopy without compromising quality,” says marketing manager Jessica Donlan, MLS(ASCP). “Automated urinalysis minimizes hands-on time, standardizes results, and gives laboratorians the flexibility to multitask.” Arkray sells the Aution Hybrid AU-4050 fully automated and integrated urine chemistry and sediment instrument as well as the Aution Max AX-4030 fully automated urine chemistry instrument.

The urinalysis market, in general, “is growing globally at about two percent for the urine chemistry side,” says Foohey. “But when you look at the combined automated urine chemistry and sediment market, it’s growing at more like four to five percent.”

Stressing the ongoing need for urinalysis—automated or not—Foohey adds that, “Globally, there are more than 1 billion people at risk for kidney disease, with one risk factor being [age] over 60 years,” she says. “And this is a very easily performed test. All you need is some urine, a cup, and a urine strip, whether the physician is in the outback of Australia, or the most remote parts of Canada, or Tierra del Fuego in South America.”

Williams agrees. “I think a lot of people have fallen into the trap of thinking, ‘It’s just urine,’” she says. “But if you really pay attention to what urinalysis results are telling you, specifically to what you find in the urine sediment, then I think you can appreciate that urine is still as relevant as it’s ever been.”

She points to the trend toward identifying biomarkers for kidney disease. “There have been several of these identified, but the medical community can’t seem to come to a consensus on which one is best for which condition. Once they identify a marker and can align it with a specific disease state, that’s going to be a new avenue for urine testing.”

Also supporting the growth of urinalysis, Williams says, is the trend toward increased screening for urinary tract infections, particularly those associated with catheter use. “It’s more important than ever for hospitals to catch infection early, so they can prove that a patient did not develop a hospital-acquired infection,” she says. “Otherwise, they run the risk of losing the reimbursement for the entire stay. And quite often those patients are not symptomatic, and if you let a UTI go undetected, it can lead to sepsis. Using available urine testing to make sure you capture these infections early is becoming more important as health care starts to focus on patient outcomes and test value versus the traditional pay-for-service model.”

In CAP TODAY’s guide to urinalysis instrumentation are products from the aforementioned manufacturers and from Beckman Coulter and Roche Diagnostics. Companies supplied the information listed. Readers interested in a particular product should confirm that it has the stated features and capabilities.

Anne Ford is a writer in Evanston, Ill.