IMPACT OF UNIFIED PROCEDURES AS IMPLEMENTED IN THE CANADIAN QUALITY ASSURANCE PROGRAM FOR T-LYMPHOCYTE SUBSET ENUMERATION

objective of the Canadian Quality Assurance Program (CQAP) is to provi de the most reproducible and accurate T-cell subset enumeration for in dividuals living with HIV-who are enrolled in the Canadian Clinical Tr ial Network for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) Therapies (abbreviated as CTN), The Canadi an National Laboratory for Analytical Cytology, within the Laboratory Centre for Disease Control, is part of the Health Protection Branch of Health Canada. For the past eight years, the Laboratory for Analytica l Cytology has been responsible for delivering a bilingual quality ass urance program for CD4 T-cell enumeration. This federal program, which integrates biotechnology transfer with quality assessment, was achiev ed through the organization of workshops focused on technology transfe r and essential skill-building techniques. Two training sessions were conducted for the CTN how cytometer operators. The first introduced th e concept of window of analysis, to demonstrate the practical benefits of unified quantitative fluorescent measurement. As a follow-up to th e first workshop, participants performed a series of quantitative assa ys that monitored the expression of CD69, an early activation marker. This quantitative fluorescence protocol was performed with acceptable interlaboratory variation using modified commercial kits.