Abstract:

Objective To analyze the external quality assessment(EQA) results for kidney function indices of Shanghai clinical laboratories in 2012, to understand the status of creatinine(Cr), uric acid(UA) and urea(UN) determinations, and to provide the experimental data for standardization. Methods A total of 10 different concentrations of control materials were distributed to Shanghai laboratories for the routine chemical EQA. Data was classified into different groups, according to the instruments. The means(x), standard deviation(s)and coefficient of variation (CV) were calculated for each group after eliminating outliers.Results In EQA results, the CVamong laboratories of Cr, UA and UN were 1.30%-12.73%, 1.06%-6.78% and 1.55%-8.79%, respectively for different groups. The lowest variation of Cr was in Import 1 group. The range of CV was 1.70%-5.15% in detecting (46-574) μmol/L of Cr. The lowest variation of UA was in Import 3 group. The range of CV was 1.49%-2.19% in detecting (132-550) μmol/L of UA. The lowest variation of UN was in Import 2 group. The range of CV was 1.55%-2.74% in detecting (3.15-18.13) mmol/L of UN. Conclusions The determination performance of Cr needs to be further improved in Shanghai laboratories. The determination performance of homemade instruments remains to be further improved in terms of equipment. It is needed to strengthen the laboratory quality management to gradually achieve the mutual recognition of test results and to provide the reliable diagnosis and treatment references.

Key words: External quality assessment, Creatinine, Uric acid, Urea, Biological variation