Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 30, 2026
Quality-Controlled Sputum Analysis by Flow Cytometry
Published on: August 9, 2021
The instability of commercial control materials in quality control of mean corpuscular volume
Sue Jung Kim1, Eun Young Lee1, Yea Jin Song1
1Department of Laboratory Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, 250 Seongsanno, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 120-752, Republic of Korea.
Background:
Mean corpuscular volume (MCV) of stabilized whole blood used for quality control (QC) of hematology analyzers exhibits a tendency to increase during storage. The aim of this study is to evaluate the extent of biases over time with 3 most widely used control materials and to map out a strategy to overcome the data shift of MCV on daily QC practice.
Methods:
QC results of TESTPoint tested by ADVIA 2120i, e-CHEK tested by XE 2100, and 6C Cell Control tested by DxH 800 were analyzed.
Results:
MCV of all control materials showed a tendency to increase over time. By the fifth week, most of the materials showed biases larger than one standard deviation, with some exceeding a bias of four standard deviations.
Conclusions:
Laboratories should apply appropriate QC strategies in MCV tests by considering their individual quality and efficiency requirements.
Related Concept Videos
01:13Interpreting X̄ Charts
An x̄ chart plots the values of individual measurements over time against control limits calculated from historical data. The central line...
01:16Drug Product Stability