C. Biosca et al., Are equally spaced specimen collections necessary to assess biological variation? Evidence from renal transplant recipients, CLIN CHIM A, 301(1-2), 2000, pp. 79-85
The established method for determining the components of biological variati
on (BV) requires equispaced time intervals between samplings. In a previous
study, we determined BV in renal post transplantation patients, taking adv
antage of the samples obtained within their clinical treatment protocol (no
t necessarily equispaced). To confirm the validity of this practice, we sou
ght to determine if the use of varying sampling intervals has an effect on
the results obtained in such biological variation studies. The study includ
ed two phases: comparison of the results found with identical and non-ident
ical sampling intervals and correlation between the within-subject BV and t
he length of the sampling interval. There were no differences in within-sub
ject BV between the groups or correlations with sampling intervals for any
of the constituents studied. We conclude that samples acquired within estab
lished clinical protocols for kidney transplant recipients can be used for
estimating BV. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.