title: A collaborative study to assess the proficiency of laboratory estimates of potency of live measles vaccines.
abstract: A collaborative study was undertaken to assess the variability in estimates of the potency of measles vaccines. Overall a median variation of 2.0 log10 between estimates was observed. This was reduced to a median of 1.0 log10 when the potencies were expressed relative to a reference vaccine. A difference in the sensitivity between plaque assays and TCID50 assays was also reduced when relative potencies were used. The benefit of including a common reference preparation in vaccine assays was therefore demonstrated. For the vaccines assayed in this study, it was not necessary to use a measles reference of the same strain as the vaccines tested. We therefore recommend that measles vaccines be assayed against a single international reference preparation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Virology, National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, Potters Bar, Herts, U.K.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Forsey
authors.forename: A B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Heath
authors.forename: P D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Minor
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001681:Biological Assay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008458:Measles Vaccine / Q000032:analysis* / Q000592:standards; D012015:Reference Standards; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D010948:Viral Plaque Assay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
chemical_list: D008458:Measles Vaccine