Atypical cells in the urinary sediment: a protocol for cytological analysis of the urinary sediment

Introduction:  The Department of Clinical Chemistry of the General Hospital of Mostoles (Madrid, Spain) has for many years diagnosed the presence of atypical cells in the urinary sediment (ACUS), but this finding only led to a comment in the final report of the urinalysis, informing the clinician of this fact in case he/she decided to perform further studies in these patients. Methods:  Since 2004, the Clinical Chemistry Department has implemented a new protocol together with the Department of Surgical Pathology of the Hospital, according to which all the urinary sediment samples with ACUS are sent for cytological analysis. In this report, we comment on the results corresponding to 99 samples. Results:  With this new strategy, we can directly diagnose if the ACUS correspond to a carcinoma or to another process, and this has allowed us to reduce time until diagnosis in our patients and also to avoid unnecessary studies in negative cases. We comment on our results with this new management strategy.