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The number of replicates, and pooling versus individual measurements for analytical imprecision calculations: Does it
Fernando Tecles1, Alberto Muñoz1, José J Cerón1
1Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Clinical Analysis of the University of Murcia (Interlab-UMU), University of Murcia, Espinardo, Spain.
Background:
Recommendations from the American Society of Veterinary Clinical Pathology (ASVCP) are to calculate the between-run coefficient of variation (CV) based on measuring one replicate per day on quality control materials (QCMs) or pooled patient samples over a minimum of 20 days. However, this recommendation is not always followed by researchers.
Objectives:
We aimed to determine if a reduction in the number of replicates using QCM or individual or pooled samples would provide CV results similar to those obtained based on ASVCP recommendations.
Methods:
CVs were calculated for three measurands, namely urea, creatinine, and C-reactive protein based on the analytic results of the following groups: (a) QCM measured once daily for 20 days (considered as the reference for comparison), b) QCM measured once daily for 5 days, (c) five different canine serum samples measured once daily for 5 days, and (d) a pooled canine serum measured once daily for 5 days. CVs were calculated for two different measurand concentrations.
Results:
Compared with the reference method, significantly different CVs were obtained with all methods except for when the QCM was measured once daily for 5 days. The use of the five different individual samples also provided significantly different CVs compared with the use of a pooled sample.
Conclusions:
The results indicate that different protocols for determining between-run imprecision calculations can give different results compared with the reference procedure and that this should be taken into consideration when evaluating the total error associated with a test.
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