Biomaterial Database

An interlaboratory comparison of analyses of clinical specimens. 1978

G F Grannis, and J A Lott

A pilot study was conducted to identify some of the benefits and limitations of making interlaboratory comparisons of clinical assays. Sixteen laboratories that participated in a regional quality control program and used similar instrumentation each provided analyses of specimens from three male and three female healthy subjects, 25 male and 25 female clinical subjects, and several control specimens. Analysis of the data revealed that the derived normal ranges agreed well with those provided by the instrument manufacturer, and that for some analytes the laboratories produced comparable clinical assays. The control specimens were found to be indicators of the presence of analytic bias that affected the clinical assays, but they did not always correctly indicate the kind or magnitude of bias. Using pattern recognition technics, it was shown that a laboratory's clinical assays had characteristic distributions that were apparently related to the populations served, as well as to analytic precision. The results demonstrate that useful information may be gleaned from interlaboratory surveys of clinical assays.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007753	Laboratories	Facilities equipped to carry out investigative procedures.	Laboratory
D008297	Male		Males
D010336	Pathology	A specialty concerned with the nature and cause of disease as expressed by changes in cellular or tissue structure and function caused by the disease process.	Pathologies
D010363	Pattern Recognition, Automated	In INFORMATION RETRIEVAL, machine-sensing or identification of visible patterns (shapes, forms, and configurations). (Harrod's Librarians' Glossary, 7th ed)	Automated Pattern Recognition,Pattern Recognition System,Pattern Recognition Systems
D011786	Quality Control	A system for verifying and maintaining a desired level of quality in a product or process by careful planning, use of proper equipment, continued inspection, and corrective action as required. (Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2d ed)	Control, Quality,Controls, Quality,Quality Controls
D011787	Quality of Health Care	The levels of excellence which characterize the health service or health care provided based on accepted standards of quality.	Pharmacy Audit,Quality of Care,Quality of Healthcare,Audit, Pharmacy,Care Quality,Health Care Quality,Healthcare Quality,Pharmacy Audits
D012015	Reference Standards	A basis of value established for the measure of quantity, weight, extent or quality, e.g. weight standards, standard solutions, methods, techniques, and procedures used in diagnosis and therapy.	Standard Preparations,Standards, Reference,Preparations, Standard,Standardization,Standards,Preparation, Standard,Reference Standard,Standard Preparation,Standard, Reference
D012016	Reference Values	The range or frequency distribution of a measurement in a population (of organisms, organs or things) that has not been selected for the presence of disease or abnormality.	Normal Range,Normal Values,Reference Ranges,Normal Ranges,Normal Value,Range, Normal,Range, Reference,Ranges, Normal,Ranges, Reference,Reference Range,Reference Value,Value, Normal,Value, Reference,Values, Normal,Values, Reference
D001774	Blood Chemical Analysis	An examination of chemicals in the blood.	Analysis, Blood Chemical,Chemical Analysis, Blood,Analyses, Blood Chemical,Blood Chemical Analyses,Chemical Analyses, Blood
D005260	Female		Females