[Standardized counting of particles in the urine: a comparison between flow cytometry, cell chamber counting and...

We compared the number of particles in the urine with flow cytometry and manual methods: cell chamber and standardised sediment analysis. The correlation (r) between the KOVA-cell chamber and the flow cytometer UF-100 was 0.966 for erythrocytes, 0.935 for leukocytes and 0.902 for squamous epithelial cells. Similar results were obtained by a standardised preparation of the sediment. Today, the estimation of the cell number in the sediment analysis is still common. The KOVA cell chamber system is a cheap alternative for microscopy, whereas automation with flow cytometry is only used for large laboratories. Reference values were established under optimal conditions (erythrocytes < 14/microliter, leukocytes < 16/microliter) with a cut-off of 20/microliter.