1. National survey on internal quality control for tumour markers in clinical laboratories in China
- Author
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Zhehui Hu, Shuai Yuan, Wei Wang, Zhiguo Wang, Kun Zhong, Yuxuan Du, and Falin He
- Subjects
Quality Control ,030213 general clinical medicine ,Percentile ,medicine.medical_specialty ,China ,Laboratory Proficiency Testing ,Clinical Biochemistry ,Computer-assisted web interviewing ,internal quality control ,tumour marker ,imprecision ,biological variation ,Immunoenzyme Techniques ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Biological variation ,Neoplasms ,Surveys and Questionnaires ,External quality assessment ,Biomarkers, Tumor ,Medicine ,Humans ,Medical physics ,Automation, Laboratory ,business.industry ,Biochemistry (medical) ,Laboratories, Hospital ,Original Papers ,Internal quality ,030220 oncology & carcinogenesis ,Luminescent Measurements ,business - Abstract
Introduction This survey was initiated to obtain knowledge on the current situation of internal quality control (IQC) practice for tumour markers (TMs) in China. Additionally, we tried to acquire the most appropriate quality specifications. Materials and methods This survey was a current status survey. The IQC information had been collected via online questionnaires. All of 1821 clinical laboratories which participated in the 2016 TMs external quality assessment (EQA) programme had been enrolled. The imprecision evaluation criteria were the minimal, desirable, and optimal allowable imprecisions based on biological variations, and 1/3 total allowable error (TEa) and 1/4 TEa. Results A total of 1628 laboratories answered the questionnaires (89%). The coefficients of variation (CVs) of the IQC of participant laboratories varied greatly from 1% (5th percentile) to 13% (95th percentile). More than 82% (82 - 91%) of participant laboratories two types of CVs met 1/3 TEa except for CA 19-9. The percentiles of current CVs were smaller than cumulative CVs. A number of 1240 laboratories (76%) reported their principles and systems used. The electrochemiluminescence was the most used principle (45%) and had the smallest CVs. Conclusions The performance of laboratories for TMs IQC has yet to be improved. On the basis of the obtained results, 1/3 TEa would be realistic and attainable quality specification for TMs IQC for clinical laboratories in China.
- Published
- 2018