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Croatian laboratories have a good knowledge of the proper detection and management of hemolyzed, icteric and lipemic samples

  • Nora Nikolac , Ivana Celap EMAIL logo , Petra Filipi , Marina Hemar , Marija Kocijancic , Marijana Miler , Ana-Maria Simundic , Vesna Supak Smolcic and Alen Vrtaric
Published/Copyright: September 30, 2015
Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM)
From the journal Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM) Volume 54 Issue 3

Abstract

Background: Endogenous interferences are an important source of biased laboratory results. Hemolysis, lipemia and icteria are the main source of endogenous interference in laboratory medicine. Accreditation according to ISO 15189 improves the overall quality of the laboratory procedures. The aim of our study was i) to assess the level of knowledge of Croatian medical biochemists about the proper detection and management of hemolysis, lipemia and icteria; and ii) to identify possible differences in the level of knowledge respective to the laboratory accreditation status.

Methods: An on-line self-report survey was carried out by the Working Group for Preanalytical Phase of the Croatian Society of Medical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine during April to May 2015. Survey included 14 statements (Q1–Q14) about procedures for samples with interferences and participants were asked to assess the degree of agreement with the statement using a 4-point Likert scale.

Results: The lowest level of knowledge was observed for statements Q10 (dealing with icteric sample; 40.9% participants agreed with the correct procedure), Q12 (allowable error for interference; 47.2%) and Q11 (dealing with lipemic sample; 60.1%). Almost all participants (97.4%) agreed that laboratories in Croatia should have a harmonized protocol for management of samples with interferences. Participants from accredited laboratories showed higher knowledge of hemolysis detection (p=0.031), rejection of hemolyzed sample (p<0.001), management of icteric samples (p=0.038) and allowable error for interferences (p=0.040).

Conclusions: Croatian laboratories have a good knowledge of the proper detection and management of hemolyzed, icteric and lipemic samples. Accreditation is associated with higher knowledge about management of samples with interferences.

Keywords: hemolysis; icteria; interferences; laboratory errors; lipemia; preanalytical phase; survey
Corresponding author: Ivana Celap, University Department of Chemistry, Sestre Milosrdnice University Hospital, Vinogradska 29, Zagreb, Croatia, Phone/Fax: +385-1-3768-280, E-mail: ; and Working Group for Preanalytical Phase of the Croatian Society of Medical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine, Zagreb, Croatia

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Received: 2015-7-9
Accepted: 2015-8-28
Published Online: 2015-9-30
Published in Print: 2016-3-1

©2016 by De Gruyter

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https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2015-0650
Keywords for this article
hemolysis; icteria; interferences; laboratory errors; lipemia; preanalytical phase; survey

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Editorial
  3. The way of prostate cancer diagnostics
  4. Review
  5. Statistical methods used in the calculation of geriatric reference intervals: a systematic review
  6. Opinion Paper
  7. The side effects of translational omics: overtesting, overdiagnosis, overtreatment
  8. Genetics and Molecular Diagnostics
  9. Rapid detection of non-deletional mutations causing α-thalassemia by multicolor melting curve analysis
  10. General Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
  11. Patient pools and the use of “patient means” are valuable tools in quality control illustrated by a bone-specific alkaline phosphatase assay
  12. Long-term stability of glucose: 96-h study using Terumo Glycaemia tubes
  13. Glucose is stable during prolonged storage in un-centrifuged Greiner tubes with liquid citrate buffer, but not in serum and NaF/KOx tubes
  14. Croatian laboratories have a good knowledge of the proper detection and management of hemolyzed, icteric and lipemic samples
  15. Fetal exposure to ethanol: relationship between ethyl glucuronide in maternal hair during pregnancy and ethyl glucuronide in neonatal meconium
  16. Comparing the effect of isotopically labeled or structural analog internal standards on the performance of a LC-MS/MS method to determine ciclosporin A, everolimus, sirolimus and tacrolimus in whole blood
  17. Relationship between matrix metalloproteinase-9 and oxidative stress in drug-free male schizophrenia: a case control study
  18. Comparison of functional fibrinogen (FF/CFF) and FIBTEM in surgical patients – a retrospective study
  19. Reference Values and Biological Variations
  20. Assessment of serum free light chain levels in healthy adults immediately after marathon running
  21. Pharmacokinetics of a novel dosing regimen of oral melatonin in critically ill patients
  22. Cancer Diagnostics
  23. An epidemiology-based model as a tool to monitor the outbreak of inappropriateness in tumor marker requests: a national scale study
  24. Comparative analysis of prostate cancer specific biomarkers PCA3 and ERG in whole urine, urinary sediments and exosomes
  25. Infectious Diseases
  26. Comparative evaluation of the Aptima HIV-1 Quant Dx assay and COBAS TaqMan HIV-1 v2.0 assay using the Roche High Pure System for the quantification of HIV-1 RNA in plasma
  27. Evaluating the use of procalcitonin in an asymptomatic, HIV-infected antiretroviral therapy-naïve, South African cohort
  28. Diabetes
  29. Early prediction of gestational diabetes: a practical model combining clinical and biochemical markers
  30. Letters to the Editors
  31. Highly-trained dogs’ olfactory system for detecting biochemical recurrence following radical prostatectomy
  32. More on the accuracy of the Architect enzymatic assay for hemoglobin A1c and its traceability to the IFCC reference system
  33. Assessing quality from an accuracy-based HbA1c proficiency survey
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  35. Between analyser differences in chloride measurements and thus anion gap cause different interpretations of the acid-base balance
  36. Non-albumininuric proteinuria: a urinary tubular marker in the diagnosis of diabetic kidney disease
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