1 – Program overview

This external quality assessment program assesses the accuracy of the most commonly performed urine biochemistry tests, as well as of the ratios calculated against urinary creatinine (albumin, protein, calcium and phosphate).

Participating labs can choose to be assessed for all the analytes of this program, or simply a subset of analytes of interest.

2 – Assessment frequency

Number of surveys per year: 6
Number of control samples per survey: 1 or 2
Number of samples per year: 12

The program includes 20 analytes. Each analyte is controlled between 6 and 12 times a year.

3 – List of analytes assessed 

• Albumin (microalbumin)
• Albumin/creatinine ratio
• Beta-2 microglobulin*
• Calcium
• New - Calcium/creatinine ratio
• Chloride
• Creatinine
• Glucose
• Magnesium
• Osmolality (calculated or measured)
• Phosphate
• New - Phosphate/creatinine ratio
• Potassium
• Protein/creatinine ratio
• Sodium
• Total protein
• Urea
• Uric acid
• Urine pH*
• Urine specific gravity*

4 – Description of the control samples

Lyophilised human control urine (samples to be resuspended in 5 mL of distilled water).