title: Evaluation of PDA Technical Report No 33. Statistical Testing Recommendations for a Rapid Microbiological Method Case Study.
abstract: New recommendations for the validation of rapid microbiological methods have been included in the revised Technical Report 33 release from the PDA. The changes include a more comprehensive review of the statistical methods to be used to analyze data obtained during validation. This case study applies those statistical methods to accuracy, precision, ruggedness, and equivalence data obtained using a rapid microbiological methods system being evaluated for water bioburden testing. Results presented demonstrate that the statistical methods described in the PDA Technical Report 33 chapter can all be successfully applied to the rapid microbiological method data sets and gave the same interpretation for equivalence to the standard method. The rapid microbiological method was in general able to pass the requirements of PDA Technical Report 33, though the study shows that there can be occasional outlying results and that caution should be used when applying statistical methods to low average colony-forming unit values.
  
  
  
  Prior to use in a quality-controlled environment, any new method or technology has to be shown to work as designed by the manufacturer for the purpose required. For new rapid microbiological methods that detect and enumerate contaminating microorganisms, additional recommendations have been provided in the revised PDA Technical Report No. 33. The changes include a more comprehensive review of the statistical methods to be used to analyze data obtained during validation. This paper applies those statistical methods to analyze accuracy, precision, ruggedness, and equivalence data obtained using a rapid microbiological method system being validated for water bioburden testing. The case study demonstrates that the statistical methods described in the PDA Technical Report No. 33 chapter can be successfully applied to rapid microbiological method data sets and give the same comparability results for similarity or difference as the standard method.
authors.affiliation: Rapid Micro Biosystems, Inc., Lowell, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.affiliation: Rapid Micro Biosystems, Inc., Lowell, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schwedock
authors.affiliation: Rapid Micro Biosystems, Inc., Lowell, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Kham
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.affiliation: Rapid Micro Biosystems, Inc., Lowell, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mills
authors.affiliation: Rapid Micro Biosystems, Inc., Lowell, MA, USA djones@rapidmicrobio.com.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jones
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000254:growth & development / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D001431:Bacteriological Techniques / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D015233:Models, Statistical; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014871:Water Microbiology
keywords: Growth Direct; Method validation; Rapid microbiological methods; Statistics; TR33