Defining allowable total error limits in the clinical laboratory
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Updated: Jul 4, 2025

Selected Reaction Monitoring Mass Spectrometry for Absolute Protein Quantification
Published on: August 17, 2015
Jill Palmer1, Kornelia Galior2
1University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, Madison, WI, United States; Unity Point Health-Meriter, Madison, WI, United States.
Abstract:
Allowable total error (ATE) are performance specification limits predefined for a variety of laboratory analytes. These limits define the maximum amount of error that is allowed for an assay when judging acceptability of a new assay during method verification/validation, evaluating patient or instrument comparison data, or in designing a quality control strategy. There are several widely available resources and models that can serve as a guide in selecting ATE. They may be based on legal requirements or set by providers of proficiency testing (PT) and external quality assessment schemes (EQAS). ATE can be also determined by professional expert groups or be based on biological variation of an analyte. Because there are several resources to choose from, there have been several attempts in reaching consensus on which ATE resource should be given preference. This chapter reviews several of these resources in more detail and discusses the difference between allowable total error (ATE) and observed total analytical error (TAE).
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