Evaluation of the iChem® Velocity™ urine chemistry analyzer in a hospital routine laboratory

The novel urine chemistry analyzer iChem Velocity (IRIS Diagnostics) offers improved urinalysis automation options through integration with the well-established iQ200 urine microscopy analyzer. In the course of optimizing the workflow in our hospital routine laboratory, we evaluated the performance of the iChem Velocity.

A total of 257 random urine samples were analyzed with the iChem Velocity, iQ200, Clinitek Atlas (Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics) and by manual microscopy.

Depending on the parameter, 93% (hemoglobin) to 100% (urobilinogen), the iChem Velocity and Clinitek Atlas results agreed within the same rank or within one level of difference. The Clinitek Atlas featured a higher sensitivity for hemoglobin (area under the curve 0.86) and leukocyte esterase (area under the curve 0.85) compared with the iChem Velocity (area under the curve for hemoglobin 0.73, leukocytes 0.78). Imprecision was highest for hemoglobin and leukocytes in a pathological sample pool. While the precision of the Clinitek Atlas for hemoglobin measurements was superior, the iChem Velocity was more precise in analyzing protein and pH.

Through urinalysis automation with the iChem Velocity and iQ200, we achieved a reduction of hands-on time by 89%. The sensitivity of this new system should be further improved through ongoing development.