title: Standardization of reticulocyte values in an antidoping context.
abstract: The lack of standardization of reticulocyte results hinders the ability of sports authorities to recognize the telltale fluctuations over time that are typical for athletes using illegal blood doping to improve their performance. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to devise a tenable approach for antidoping authorities to quantify, instrument bias. We evaluated reticulocyte data derived during a 42-week period from 210 hospital patient blood samples measured in duplicate simultaneously on up to 11 hematology analyzers located in a single laboratory. We found that square root transformation of reticulocyte values enabled quantification of interinstrument bias by using the mean reticulocyte value of a cohort of approximately 54 subjects as a de facto calibration agent. We also demonstrated that measurement precision associated with low reticulocyte values was not inferior to that associated with higher values.
authors.affiliation: Science and Industry Against Blood Doping Research Consortium, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Ashenden
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sharpe
authors.forename: Rasmus
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Damsgaard
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jarvis
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D004300:Doping in Sports; D004921:Erythropoietin / Q000494:pharmacology; D005434:Flow Cytometry / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D017701:Reticulocyte Count / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000592:standards*; D012156:Reticulocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D004921:Erythropoietin