Altoona Hospital, Altoona, Pennsylvania, USA, has selected Advanced Instruments' Renol urine reference control to calibrate the osmometer in its diagnostics laboratory. Osmometers are used by clinical laboratories toprovide the fastest results in diagnosing drug intoxication, renal function, head trauma, and other applications.
“When Advanced Instruments Renol urine control material became available, we tried it on our osmometer to determine if it would achieve better results,“ said Doug Decker, assistant lab supervisor, Altoona Hospital. “In our trials, we've found that Renol's ranges are more in line with what we would find from our patient samples. The normal range of the constituents in human urine is very wide. And the Renol controls better reflect the normal ranges for osmolality that we expect to see in our patient population. The two are very close. This strong correlation is the main reason we will be switching to Renol. For our lab, it will result in more accurate performance of our osmometer,“ he said.
Decker also said the while the lab's quality control programme is in compliance, the addition of Renol has enhanced their efforts.
Renol is the world's only osmometer-specific control solution designed for laboratories testing urine samples.
Ken Micciche, director of marketing, Advanced Instruments, said: “Our goal was to design a reference solution that goes beyond quality control compliance and helps laboratories such as Altoona Hospital's maximise the accuracy and precision of their instruments.“
Wider tolerances in multi-analyte controls can mask variations in osmometer performance while still maintaining CLIA compliance.
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