Comparison of estimates of long-term analytical variation derived from subject samples and control serum

Variation in the assays of uniform control serum commonly are assumed to represent day-to-day analytical variation. To test this assumption, we compared the differences between results of serum aliquots assayed immediately for 12 constituents and frozen aliquots accumulated and assayed on a single day with the results of control serum variation from the same period. One aliquot of each weekly sample was stored frozen. Eleven subjects were sampled for 12 weeks. Storage at --20 degrees C for 15 weeks had a mild destructive effect on two enzymes in serum. The control serum data revealed significant linear trends in magnesium (upwards) and alkaline phosphatase (downwards) that substantially increased the respective variances. In the other 10 constituents tested, comparison of variances indicated that long-term (weeks) variation in control serum assays is similar to the difference of variation between aliquots assayed immediately and those frozen and assayed at the same time. For these constituents, this finding justifies the use of control serum to estimate long term analytical variation.