Spanish Preanalytical Quality Monitoring Program (SEQC), an overview of 12 years’ experience
-
María Antonia Llopis
,
Josep Miquel Bauça
Abstract
Background:
Preanalytical variables, such as sample collection, handling and transport, may affect patient results. Preanalytical phase quality monitoring should be established in order to minimize laboratory errors and improve patient safety.
Methods:
A retrospective study (2001–2013) of the results obtained through the Spanish Society of Clinical Biochemistry and Molecular Pathology (SEQC) External quality assessment (preanalytical phase) was performed to summarize data regarding the main factors affecting preanalytical phase quality. Our aim was to compare data from 2006 to 2013 with a previously published manuscript assessing the 2001–2005 period.
Results:
A significant decrease in rejection rates was observed both for blood and urine samples. For serum samples, the most frequent rejection causes in the first period were non-received samples (37.5%), hemolysis (29.3%) and clotted samples (14.4%). Conversely, in the second period, hemolysis was the main rejection cause (36.2%), followed by non-received samples (34.5%) and clotted samples (11.1%). For urine samples, the main rejection cause overall was a non-received sample (up to 86.1% of cases in the second period, and 81.6% in the first). For blood samples with anticoagulant, the number of rejections also decreased. While plasma-citrate-ESR still showed the highest percentages of rejections (0.980% vs. 1.473%, p<0.001), the lowest corresponded to whole-blood EDTA (0.296% vs. 0.381%, p<0.001).
Conclusions:
For the majority of sample types, a decrease in preanalytical errors was confirmed. Improvements in organization, implementation of standardized procedures in the preanalytical phase, and participation in a Spanish external quality assessment scheme may have notably contributed to error reduction in this phase.
Acknowledgments
Laboratories participating in SEQC Preanalytical Quality Monitoring Program.
Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.
Research funding: SEQC.
Employment or leadership: None declared.
Honorarium: None declared.
Competing interests: The funding organization(s) played no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the report for publication.
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©2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
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- Metabolite profiling can change health-care delivery to obese patients with fatty liver disease: the search for biomarkers
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- The central role of external quality assurance in harmonisation and standardisation for laboratory medicine
- Review
- Fecal calprotectin in inflammatory bowel diseases: update and perspectives
- Mini Review
- Factor VIIa-antithrombin complex: a possible new biomarker for activated coagulation
- Opinion Papers
- Improving quality in the preanalytical phase through innovation, on behalf of the European Federation for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM) Working Group for Preanalytical Phase (WG-PRE)
- Metabolite profiling can change health-care delivery to obese patients with fatty liver disease: the search for biomarkers
- Genetics and Molecular Diagnostics
- Rapid screening for targeted genetic variants via high-resolution melting curve analysis
- Evaluation of the new cobas® HCV genotyping test based on real-time PCRs of three different HCV genome regions
- General Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
- Harmonisation of serum dihydrotestosterone analysis: establishment of an external quality assurance program
- Spanish Preanalytical Quality Monitoring Program (SEQC), an overview of 12 years’ experience
- Peer groups splitting in Croatian EQA scheme: a trade-off between homogeneity and sample size number
- Prevalence of pseudonatremia in a clinical laboratory – role of the water content
- Retrospective validation of a β-trace protein interpretation algorithm for the diagnosis of cerebrospinal fluid leakage
- Economic evaluation of procalcitonin-guided antibiotic therapy in acute respiratory infections: a Chinese hospital system perspective
- Performance evaluation of ImmunoCAP® ISAC 112: a multi-site study
- Clinical autoantibody detection by microarray
- Cardiovascular Diseases
- Kinetics of troponin I in patients with myocardial injury after noncardiac surgery
- Infectious Diseases
- P35 and P22 Toxoplasma gondii antigens abbreviate regions to diagnose acquired toxoplasmosis during pregnancy: toward single-sample assays
- Letters to the Editor
- Deciphering a macro-troponin I complex; a case report
- Interference of laboratory disinfection with trichloro-isocyanuric acid on cardiac troponin I measurement using the Vitros immunoassay system
- Massive interference in free T4 and free T3 assays misleading clinical judgment
- In defense of aldosterone measurement by immunoassay: a broader perspective
- The prevalence of hemolysis – a survey using hemolysis index
- Detection of BRAFV600K mutant tumor-derived DNA in the pleural effusion from a patient with metastatic melanoma
- Evaluation of the accuracy of the Greiner Bio-One FC Mix Glucose tube
- Congress Abstracts
- 4th EFLM-BD European Conference on Preanalytical Phase Amsterdam (NL), 24–25 March 2017
