External quality assessment providers' services appear to more impact the immunohaematology performance of laboratories than national regulatory and economic conditions.

Objectives: Medical laboratories may, at their own discretion, exceed but not undercut regulatory quality requirements. Available economic resources, however, may drive or hinder eagerness to exceed minimum requirements. Depending on the respective scopes of regulatory and economic framework conditions, differing levels of quality efforts to safeguard laboratory performance can be anticipated.

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.

Distribution of HCV genotypes in Belgium from 2008 to 2015.

Background: The knowledge of circulating HCV genotypes and subtypes in a country is crucial to guide antiviral therapy and to understand local epidemiology. Studies investigating circulating HCV genotypes and their trends have been conducted in Belgium. However they are outdated, lack nationwide representativeness or were not conducted in the general population.

The C677T MTHFR genotypes influence the efficacy of B9 and B12 vitamins supplementation to lowering plasma total homocysteine in hemodialysis.

Background: Hyperhomocysteinaemia, an independent risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, is common in hemodialysis patients (HD) and particularly in those homozygous for polymorphism of the 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene. B vitamins supplementation has been shown to lower plasma total homocysteine (tHcy), but this has been contreversed in several groups. The aim of our study was to explore the response of tHcy in hemodialysis (HD) patients to individual supplementation with folic acid (B9) and/or vitamin B12, based on carrier status for the (MTHFR) polymorphism.