Purpose: In recent decades, several new techniques for measuring erytrocyte sedimentation rate have been developed in clinical laboratories. The aim of this study to compare three different automated sedimentation analyzers (Micro TEST-1, Sedisystem, Sed Rate Screener) with the manual Westergren reference method.

Materials and Methods: Patient blood samples were collected in K3EDTA vacutainers and in sodium citrate Vacu-Tec tubes and assayed within 4 hours of veinpuncture in three different sedimentation analyzer and manual Westergren method (n=40, 2-120 mm/h).

Results: The assays results of the automated sedimentation analyzers were statistically different from the manual Westergren method except Sedisystem (Sedisystem p=0.558, Micro TEST-1 p=0.034, Sed Rate Screener p=0.00 0). There were significantly high correlations between the results of sedimentation analyzers and the manuel Westergren method (Micro TEST-1 r= 0.712, Sedisystem r= 0.913, Sed Rate Screener r= 0.934, p values=0.000). The regression statistics obtained from the method comparison study were: Micro TEST-1; y = 0.80x + 0.56, Sedisystem; y = 1.10 x - 1.35, and Sed Rate Screener; y = 0.77x - 0.17.

Conclusion: The new fully automated systems for ESR measurement are safe, precise, accurate, and easy to use in clinical laboratories