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Practical experience with a quality control procedure using retained patient specimens on Technicon HI and COULTER S 880
Author(s) -
Rustad P.,
Lund P. Kr.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
european journal of haematology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1600-0609
pISSN - 0902-4441
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0609.1990.tb01522.x
Subject(s) - autoanalyzer , quality (philosophy) , medicine , coulter counter , biology , physics , microbiology and biotechnology , quantum mechanics
External quality assessment and internal quality control in hematology is complicated by the lack of good control materials. Commercial materials do not always behave as patient blood and they are expensive. Patient specimens are unstable, but may be used either within certain time limits or as in Bull's moving average for red cell indicies. We have used retained patient specimens for internal quality control supplemented by a commercial control material. Three patient‐specimens were run alternatively on a Technicon HI and a Coulter 880 at regular intervals. The variations for each instrument and between instrument were computed. We used the 2of3 2s control rule. Our conclusion is that the Coulter 880 had an overall better performance than the Technicon H1 when using retained patient specimens. But both instruments practically met suggested analytical goals.