Urinary sediment: still an important diagnostic tool
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Giovanni B. Fogazzi
This special issue of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine is based on the lectures delivered at the international symposium “Urinary sediment: still an important diagnostic tool”, which took place in Rome on the 4th and 5th of December 2014, thanks to the full support of “A. Menarini Diagnostics”.
The symposium was the realization of a project which I conceived years ago on the conviction that the urinary sediment examination, in spite of its long history and the long-lasting neglect by both clinical pathologists and clinicians, is still a valuable and irreplaceable tool for the diagnosis of the diseases of the kidneys and of the urinary tract [1–3].
The symposium, which featured 11 speakers from seven countries and was attended by more than 170 clinical pathologists from eight European countries, encompassed an opening lecture on the history of urinary microscopy and three sessions.
The first session was on to the modern view on some key particles of the urinary sediment namely, casts, lipids and crystals. Experts in the field described how these particles, when correctly identified and integrated with other urinary, laboratory and clinical findings, can play an important diagnostic role in a wide spectrum of diseases, including hereditary disorders such as Fabry disease for lipids, and 2,8-di-hydroxyadenine deficiency for crystals.
The second session was on External Quality Assessment (EQA) programs on Urinary sediment, which International Guidelines on urinalysis recommend as a key instrument to improve the quality in everyday work [4, 5]. Also this session was run by international experts, who described EQA programs as they are carried out in northern Europe, the United States, and Italy.
The third and last session was on the recent advances in the automation of urinary sediment analysis. Today, automated analyzers occupy an important place in large clinical laboratories. To me, by education a fervent supporter of manual microscopy, it is surprising to see how many, and which, improvements have occurred in recent years in the field of urine sediment automation, including the introduction of phase contrast images.
It has been my great pleasure and privilege to organize the symposium and to serve as guest editor for this special issue of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine.
I am very grateful to all the speakers for their very interesting presentations and to the Editor-in-Chief of this journal for allowing us to publish the papers which represent the content of this special issue.
Author contributions: The author has accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.
Financial support: None declared.
Employment or leadership: None declared.
Honorarium: G.B. Fogazzi is a consultant for “A. Menarini Diagnostics”, from which he receives honoraria.
Competing interests: The funding organization(s) played no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the report for publication.
References
1. Fogazzi GB. The urinary sediment: an integrated view, 3rd ed. Milan: Elsevier, 2010.Search in Google Scholar
2. Del Granado RC, Macedo E, Mehta RL. Urine microscopy in acute kidney injury: time for a change. Am J Kidney Dis 2011;57:657–60.10.1053/j.ajkd.2010.11.020Search in Google Scholar PubMed
3. Perazella MA. The urine sediment as a biomarker of kidney disease. Am J Kidney Dis 2015. doi: 10.1053/j.ajkd2015.02.342. [Epub ahead of print 2 May 2015].Search in Google Scholar
4. Kouri T, Fogazzi G, Gant V, Hallander H, Hofmann W, Guder WG, editors. European urinalysis guidelines. Scand J Clin Lab Invest 2000;60 (Suppl 231):1–96.10.1080/00365513.2000.12056993Search in Google Scholar
5. Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institute (ex NCCLS)-GP16-A3 – Urinalysis; Approved guideline, 3rd ed. Wayne, PA: CLSI, 2009.Search in Google Scholar
©2015 by De Gruyter
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Urinary sediment: still an important diagnostic tool
- Introduction
- A history of urine microscopy
- The modern view on some urinary sediment particles
- Lipiduria – with special relevance to Fabry disease
- Cylindruria
- Crystalluria
- External quality control programs on urinary sediment
- External quality assessment of urine particle identification: a Northern European experience
- The Italian External Quality Assessment (EQA) program on urinary sediment: results of the period 2012–2015
- Recent advances in the automation of urinary sediment analysis
- Screening of presumptive urinary tract infections by the automated urine sediment analyser sediMAX
- Automated urine screening devices make urine sediment microscopy in diagnostic laboratories economically viable
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Urinary sediment: still an important diagnostic tool
- Introduction
- A history of urine microscopy
- The modern view on some urinary sediment particles
- Lipiduria – with special relevance to Fabry disease
- Cylindruria
- Crystalluria
- External quality control programs on urinary sediment
- External quality assessment of urine particle identification: a Northern European experience
- The Italian External Quality Assessment (EQA) program on urinary sediment: results of the period 2012–2015
- Recent advances in the automation of urinary sediment analysis
- Screening of presumptive urinary tract infections by the automated urine sediment analyser sediMAX
- Automated urine screening devices make urine sediment microscopy in diagnostic laboratories economically viable
