Dr. Christian Haddad

Laboratory Director at the University Hospital Center of Notre Dame des Secours (CHU-NDS), Jbeil and Head of the Lebanese Syndicate of Biologists (SDBL)

Dr. Christian Haddad

“UN-Series is the number 1 among the fully automated urine analyzers”

Sysmex Middle East, one of the Middle East region’s leading diagnostic suppliers with a reputation for high-quality products, service and reliability, did an interview with Dr. Christian Haddad, Laboratory Director at the University Hospital Center of Notre Dame de Secours (CHU-NDS), Jbeil and Head of the Lebanese Syndicate of Biologists (SDBL) to receive his feedback on the Sysmex Fully Automated Urine Analyzer UN-Series after one week of evaluation and training in his facility. Below is his feedback and the full interview:

Dr. Christian’s feedback:

As a feedback about the results, we did a comparison study between the manual microscopy and the instrument; the results are approximately the same, in plus that the instrument is more precise because it is aspirating more urine volume in comparison with the manual fields. Crystal’s image is very nice and net same as if you see them in Atlas which is facilitating the recognition of crystals by the technicians, but when crystals are rarely present sometimes the technician might miss it because he is not looking at all the fields under the slide/microscope and here the added value of the machine that is counting a huge number of cells. The screen showing the images (U-WAM) is very nice, easy, flexible and modern because you can zoom in and zoom out the images or even the particles.

Regarding the casts, all casts subtypes shown and counted by the machine are better than the manual work of the technician because sometimes technician might miss them under the microscope, while we saw that the machine detects them in some cases.

Regarding Yeast, the instrument had an advantage over the manual work of the technician even the technicians here (at NDS) are having high experience in this field.

Regarding the biochemistry, the instrument is able to give the microalbumin, creatinine in urine and the A/C P/C Ratio’s, a clinical value that is really new and relevant.

One the best advantages of UN-Series that is analyzing and giving accurate results for Body Fluids, it gave us in one Cerebrospinal Fluid CSF the presence of Bacteria while there were no bacteria but maybe there is a cutoff limit and the result didn’t exceed this limit in ul. We wished to have during this week a bacterial meningitis sample to confirm the real count and identification of Bacterial presence; that will be really a great advantage that can facilitate the work of pediatrics and clinicians during the results interpretation.

In general, what I can say is that the fast analysis of Body Fluids is a great added clinical value for UN-Series. The problem now in Lebanon is the cost. The prices are still the same since 15 years, for example, the urine sample is costing or reimbursed by 5$ only, this obstacle is the one that might let the laboratories and hospitals in Lebanon think twice when they want such a machine even with such great quality and added values.

We previously did several comparisons with several urine automation systems that came to our facility as a Demo, of course, I will not mention their names but what I can see and judge is that Sysmex UN-Series has many and great advantages over the others, till now UN-Series is the best instrument that I have ever seen.

Doctor, do you see that the differentiation between Gram + and Gram – that is suspected by the machine might have an advantage for the clinicians?

Yes for sure, this point needs to be verified and validated in the lab. We couldn’t do the verification because we couldn’t do a high number of samples for one week. We have to validate it in the microbiology with a high number of samples. And when it is valid, it will facilitate and accelerate the accuracy of Antibiotic’s prescription.

If a doctor from Lebanon calls you and asks you for your feedback on UN-Series, will you recommend it to him?

My feedback is highly positive regarding this instrument, and for sure I will recommend any doctor to get it. There are a lot of doctors here in Lebanon who are calling to ask about my feedback concerning some Demo machines. Well, we have a big and high-quality qualified hospital, and we try a lot of instruments throughout the year, so yes usually doctors call me because they trust my opinion based on my experience.

Up to me and briefly, UN-Series is the number 1 among the fully automated urine analyzers.

It is really a pleasure to hear that from you Doctor and we are thankful for the opportunity that you gave us to perform the first installation and demonstration in your facility NDS-Lebanon. We are happy to hear your positive feedback and thanks for the technicians who were very supportive and they were helping us.

Actually, all the technicians were happy to use this instrument. Sometimes in labs, you can find some kind of disappointment about some new instruments in some points, but here they were all happy; even the laboratory clinicians were happy as well from the reliable reports and the new added clinical values of UN-Series. We did a comparative study of around 50 to 60 positive urine samples and the results were perfectly correlating.