[The external quality assessment schemes for lead in blood organized by the French national agency for medicine and health product safety: a synthesis of 15 years of activity].
In 1992, at the request of the French labor ministry following questions on the ability of medical biology laboratories to satisfactorily measure blood lead level (PbB), a national PbB quality control came into being. Only in 1996 did this external quality control include a number of laboratories sufficient to allow for a significant retrospective evaluation. After fifteen years (1996-2011), The French National Agency for Medicines and Health Products Safety wished to exploit the database collected. The number of participating laboratories went down from 73 to 41. On the other hand, the key finding pertained to the highly improved performance of the laboratories, which was associated with a spread decrease of the results over the entire range of tested PbBs (9 to 700 μg/L). Since 2006, we have observed increasing use of the inductively coupled plasma with mass spectrometry and decreasing use of electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry. Provided that they rely on identical metrology expertise, the two analytical techniques lead to results on all the tested concentrations that are not statistically different.
Laboratoire de toxicologie, Faculté de pharmacie, Nantes, France.
Alain
A
Pineau
Agence nationale de sécurité du médicament et des produits de santé, Saint-Denis, France.
Jocelyne
J
Otz
Laboratoire de biochimie, Faculté de médecine-pharmacie, Poitiers, France.
Olivier
O
Guillard
Service de pharmacologie, CHRU, Poitiers, France.
Bernard
B
Fauconneau
Agence nationale de sécurité du médicament et des produits de santé, Saint-Denis, France.
Gilles
G
Dumont
Agence nationale de sécurité du médicament et des produits de santé, Saint-Denis, France.
Elisabeth
E
François-Burg
D001774:Blood Chemical Analysis / Q000592:standards*; D019411:Clinical Laboratory Techniques / Q000592:standards*; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D007753:Laboratories / Q000592:standards*; D007854:Lead / Q000097:blood*; D007855:Lead Poisoning / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D009313:National Health Programs / Q000458:organization & administration; D061214:Patient Safety / Q000592:standards*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D011786:Quality Control; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013054:Spectrophotometry, Atomic
D007854:Lead
electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry; external quality control; inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry; lead; whole blood