[Rationalization of urine analysis while maintaining diagnostic accuracy (author's transl)]

Screening 720 morning urinary samples for WBC, RBC and protein by test-strip, the number of subsequent microscopic examinations of urinary sediment was reduced to about half, without missing any significant number of clinically significant findings (4.4%). On the other hand, a large number (21.3%) of cases with obviously false-negative sediment findings were revealed. These were largely due to lysis of WBC and RBC, as well as poorly standardized methods of examining urinary sediment. But they could also have been due to differences in subjective criteria employed by the technicians. Our results indicate that using test-strips for screening, clinical routine examination can be rationalized, taking about half the time needed for sediment examination, with more potentially significant findings being discovered than missed.