Evaluation of a Capillary Electrophoresis System for the Separation of Proteins.

Background: Serum protein electrophoresis is one of the core investigations for screening for monoclonal proteins. Among the available capillary systems, the Helena V8 system has been evaluated in a limited number of studies.

Methods: In total, 310 sera samples were assessed on the Helena V8 system and compared with the Sebia Capillarys instrument.

Alternative Sample-Homogeneity Test for Quantitative and Qualitative Proficiency Testing Schemes.

Proficiency Testing (PT) External Quality Assessment (EQA) schemes are designed to ascertain the ability of individual laboratories to perform satisfactorily with respect to their peer laboratories or to limits imposed by external sources. Observed deviation of a laboratory result for a PT sample must be entirely attributed to the laboratory and not to the PT provider. To minimize the probability that deviations could be attributed to the PT provider, sample homogeneity should be assured.

HbA1c: EQA in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands using fresh whole blood samples with target values assigned with the IFCC reference system.

Background: External quality assessment/proficiency test (EQA/PT) organizers play an important role in monitoring the performance of HbA1c measurements. With increasing quality of the assays, HbA1c is increasingly used for diagnosis of diabetes and the demands on EQA/PT organizers themselves are rising constantly. EQA organizers in Germany (INSTAND), Belgium (WIV/IPV), and the Netherlands (SKML) organized a program with commutable samples and target values assigned with the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC) reference system.

Comparison of different approaches to evaluate External Quality Assessment Data.

In EQA programs, Z-scores are used to evaluate laboratory performance. They should indicate poorly performing laboratories, regardless of the presence of outliers. For this, two different types of approaches exist.