R. Fifield et Rg. Hamilton, INTERLABORATORY EXTERNAL QUALITY ASSESSMENT PROGRAMS FOR THE DIAGNOSTIC ALLERGY LABORATORY, Journal of clinical immunoassay, 16(2), 1993, pp. 144-152
Two external quality assurance programs, the College of American Patho
logists (CAP) SE Survey and the European External Quality Assessment S
cheme (EUROEQAS), are conducted to evaluate the overall performance of
diagnostic allergy laboratories that measure allergen-specific immuno
globulin E (IgE) antibody. These surveys involve the analysis of three
to five coded human serum specimens per cycle, 3 to 8 cycles per year
by 250-300 laboratories. Agreement of IgE antibody results in both qu
alitative (class) and semiquantitative (arbitrary units) results are c
ompared within methods. At present, the arbitrary nature of the calibr
ation and scoring systems prevents rigorous interassay cross-compariso
ns of assay results. Laboratories producing false-positive and false-n
egative IgE antibody results with one of the commercially available cl
inical immunoassays can be identified using sera from either nonatopic
individuals or preselected sera from allergic individuals with IgE an
tibody to allergen specificities of interest. The general design and r
epresentative results from the CAP-SE and EUROEQAS proficiency surveys
are presented.