THE QUALITY OF CLINICAL SERUM TEICOPLANIN ASSAYS - AN EXPERIMENTAL EUROPEAN EQA DISTRIBUTION

Two sets of six samples of human serum spiked with predetermined conce ntrations of teicoplanin were circulated, 6 months apart, to 22 Europe an laboratories for the purposes of external quality assessment (EQA). The laboratories returned assay results using either bioassay, high-p erformance liquid chromatography (HPLC) or fluorescence polarization i mmunoassay (FPIA). FPIA was the most popular method and performance wa s generally satisfactory. Some laboratories using HPLC or microbiologi cal assay performed satisfactorily but others did not. Only seven labo ratories (32%) showed consistently satisfactory performance. There app ears to be a need for continuing EQA of clinical teicoplanin assays.