Internal quality control of a turbidimetric immunoassay for canine serum C-reactive protein based on pooled patient samples.
BACKGROUND
Optimized internal quality control (IQC) procedures are important to ensure that only results without medically important errors are used for medical decision-making and to ensure that unnecessary rejection of valid analytical runs is avoided. Additionally, estimates of the analytical performance can be derived from IQC data. In the absence of available species-specific standards of a compound, the use of alternative control materials based on patient samples is a possibility, although investigations on the suitability of this approach are needed.


OBJECTIVE
The objective of the study was to plan and implement a simple IQC procedure with control material based on pooled canine serum samples for a turbidimetric immunoassay (TIA) for the determination of human C-reactive protein (CRP) that recently was validated for the determination of canine serum CRP, and to assess the clinical analytical performance of the assay.


METHODS
Proposed guidelines for the planning and implementation of IQC procedures were followed by using 2 control materials. Quality requirements of the assay were defined objectively by means of available data on biological variation, and goals for IQC performance were defined according to recommendations (probability of error detection [P(ed)] >.90 and of false rejection [P(fr)] <.05). Analytical performance was evaluated by means of medical decision charts.


RESULTS
The control rule of 1(2.5s) (ie, rejection of the analytical run if at least 1 of 2 control materials deviates from the mean by more than 2.5 SD) fulfilled the criteria of predicted IQC performance (P(ed) =.94-1.00, P(fr) =.03). The IQC method was successfully implemented over a 14-week period. The observed coefficient of variation in the period of monitoring was 3.8% (low) and 2.9% (high), which equals excellent analytical performance.


CONCLUSIONS
It was possible to plan and implement a simple IQC procedure for the CRP-TIA with control materials based on canine serum samples that fulfilled the criteria of high error detection and low false rejection of valid analytical runs. The assay showed excellent long-term analytical performance over a 14-week period.
Kjelgaard-Hansen
Mad
M
Central Laboratory, Department of Small Animal Clinical Scienes, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Frederiksberg, Denmark. mjkh@kvl.dk
Jensen
Asger Lundorff
AL
Kristensen
Annemarie T
AT
D000818:Animals; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000032:analysis*; D019411:Clinical Laboratory Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards / Q000662:veterinary*; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D004285:Dogs / Q000097:blood*; D007118:Immunoassay / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards / Q000662:veterinary*; D009391:Nephelometry and Turbidimetry / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards / Q000662:veterinary*; D011786:Quality Control; D012015:Reference Standards; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013045:Species Specificity
D002097:C-Reactive Protein