Keeping the spotlight on quality from a distance

 Maintaining the quality of testing in remote locations can be demanding of laboratory resources in terms of daily visits to instruments and providing support outside of normal working hours. Recently technology and software solutions have appeared to reduce this burden for laboratory scientists dramatically. The AVL Auto QC unit, in conjunction with OMNILink software, allow laboratory staff to perform many quality control and maintenance procedures on instruments in wards and medical units from a PC in the central laboratory. Assessment of this technology and software in the Special Baby Care Unit at Bradford Royal Infirmary has demonstrated many benefits including reduction in ward visits, better support out of hours, regular quality control checks, and improved analytical quality. Received: 15 April 2000 · Accepted: 15 April 2000     

Quality assurance in immunogenetics and histocompatibility: experience with EFI Accreditation

 The European Federation for Immunogenetics (EFI) has its own standards for histocompatibility testing. Compared with EN 45001 and ISO Standards, EFI Standards are more detailed, actually stating "what to do" in the laboratory. The decision of Eurotransplant that all its organ transplantation programmes must be EFI-accredited by the year 2000, illustrates the importance of the these standards. It took us 11 months to prepare the EFI questionnaire, describing the main features of our laboratory and how they complied with EFI Standards. After approval of this file, inspection was performed by a team of two peers who routinely worked in an EFI-accredited tissue typing laboratory. The pre-analytical, analytical and post-analytical phases were inspected during a one day visit. Furthermore, a checklist was reviewed against the laboratory's documentation system. Within 1 month of reception of the inspection report, we were expected to send a reply listing the corrective actions taken. Upon acknowledgement of the latter, EFI Accreditation was granted, for 1 year. We feel that detailed standards, specifically designed for a certain type of laboratory, offer many advantages. Received: 15 April 2000 · Accepted: 15 April 2000     

Global trends in quality specifications: a report from the Stockholm Conference

 In Stockholm a conference entitled: "Strategies to Set Global Quality Specifications in Laboratory Medicine" was held in April 1999. The primary aim in organizing the Conference was to provide a vehicle for reaching consensus on global quality specifications in laboratory medicine. This objective was achieved and a lively constructive debate, after the presentations were complete, led to agreement on the principles laid down in the Consensus Statement. The International Federation of Clinical Chemistry (IFCC), the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) kindly sponsored the Conference but it must be noted that the Consensus Statement reflects the views of the presenters and registrants who participated in the Conference and does not necessarily represent those of the sponsoring bodies. This paper reports on the standardization efforts so far, the Stockholm Consensus Conference, the ISO uncertainty concept and the consensus reality. A hierarchy of quality specifications in laboratory medicine was defined and agreed on. Received: 15 April 2000 · Accepted: 15 April 2000     

The quest for comparability: Calibration 2000

 Most efforts in quality control have been focussed on the reduction of intralaboratory variation and the assessment of interlaboratory variation. Over the last few years, the importance of bias in interlaboratory variation and intralaboratory shifts has become clear. Small shifts can sometimes have a large impact on the number of treated patients, particularly in assays where cut off values are used. For example in cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, HbA1c and TSH assays. There is an obvious need for adequate calibration material. However, the process of development of international primary reference materials and reference methods takes time, and even if reference materials exist and are used by in vitro diagnostics manufacturers, there still remains significant and clinically relevant interlaboratory variance and intralaboratory shifts, as is seen, e.g. in protein chemistry. The harmonization of inter laboratory and intralaboratory results needs an impulse from professional organizations to convince individual laboratories of the importance and significance of bias. This applies to all subdisciplines of laboratory medicine. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Foundation for External Quality Assessment (SKZL), a large interdisciplinary harmonization project called Calibration 2000 was launched in The Netherlands The strategy and first results are reported in this paper. The project aims at harmonization of laboratory data of several disciplines, using secondary calibration materials, leading to common reference ranges throughout The Netherlands. Received: 15 April 2000 · Accepted: 15 April 2000     

Total quality management in hematology

 Healthcare is changing and clinical laboratory testing must change with it. In no discipline is this change more profound than in hematology. The principles of total quality management (TQM) including continuous quality improvement, reengineering and strategic planning can facilitate these changes. In the past, hematology has often been exlcuded from these processes due to its many manual procedures and the degree of expertise and skill needed to perform the testing. As automated technology continues to evolve, hematology testing, like other testing, will become integrated into the core, clinical laboratory. We suggest TQM can, and should, guide the way. Received: 15 April 2000 · Accepted: 19 April 2000     

Analysis of long-term distributions of calibration parameters and calibration intervals for an atomic absorption spectrophotometer

 A combination of "black box" and "calendar-time" methods for the determination of calibration intervals of an analytical measuring instrument is discussed. Since the methods require information on the distributions of the calibration parameters, such information is described for an atomic absorption spectrophotometer, as an example. The hypotheses on the normal distribution of the calibration parameters are tested using the ω²-criterion and accepted at 0.90–0.95 levels of confidence. Corresponding control charts are designed for indication of warning and action limits of the calibration parameters, and diagnoses of outliers in further calibrations. Control charts indicate also when the calibration should be done according to the full program of the equipment manufacturer. Received: 15 April 2000 / Accepted: 24 July 2000     

Proficiency testing schemes for therapeutics and toxicology

 This report addresses the proposition: current proficiency testing (PT) schemes for therapeutics and toxicology can easily engender complacency. The proposition was based on the premise that there are substantial between-laboratory differences and objectives in the supply of services for the measurement of drugs, as a result of which it is difficult to design PT schemes which adequately cover the requirements of all laboratories. Thus, acceptable performance in a PT scheme may lead participants to consider that they have tested their procedures more rigorously than is the case. Four areas, validity of the PT scheme, PT material, frequency of testing and acceptance criteria are examined. Received: 15 April 2000 · Accepted: 15 April 2000     

Hematological health-related intervals estimated using an indirect method in order to satisfy the accreditation standards

 The estimation of reference limits represents quite a taxing task for laboratories which frequently adopt the limits suggested by manufacturers or those reported in the literature. This practice does not meet the requirements of accreditation programs (i.e. Essential Criteria, Clinical Pathology Accreditation) that require laboratories to produce or check all their reference intervals. We collected 15 244 hematological results from females aged 0–99 years obtained by the Rovereto Hospital Laboratory and calculated the reference intervals, or to be more precise the health-related intervals, using an indirect method (based on all the inpatient and outpatient results). All the measurements were carried out using an automatic Coulter STK S analyzer, and the results were transferred to Verona by e-mail. The results for hemoglobin were: <1 year (n=154)=90–171 g/l; 2–8 years (n=619)=104–136 g/l; 9–14 years (n=322)=118–143 g/l; 15–44 years (n=6329)=106–144 g/l; 45–75 years (n=4893)=107–148 g/l; 75–99 years (n=2927)=90–153 g/l. The results appear different from the results currently used by Rovereto Hospital (120–160 g/l) but comparable to those reported in the literature with the exception of the subjects under 1 year and over 75 years, probably due to the excess of "diseased" subjects in these classes. The indirect method allows even small laboratories to produce or check their reference intervals for all age groups, increasing the clinical effectiveness of laboratory results and satisfying the accreditation standards. Received: 15 April 2000 · Accepted: 20 April 2000     

Evaluation of MNDO approximation in quantum-chemical calculations ofg-tensors of free radicals

The MNDO approximation was tested for applicability in calculations of theg-tensors of free radicals. The representative test set included 15 free radicals for which the isotropic and anisotropic hyperfine coupling constants were calculated previously in the framework of the MNDO approach. Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 4, pp. 601–604, April, 2000.     

The practical advantages of hospital quality systems such as NIAZ/PACE

 The Netherlands Institute for Accreditation of Hospitals (NIAZ) was established at the end of 1998. It was founded by the PACE foundation, the Society of University Hospitals, the Netherlands Association of General Hospitals and the Society of Medical Specialists in the Netherlands. Since then in the Netherlands 19 pilot accreditations have been performed based upon 35 NIAZ-PACE standards for hospital departments and functions, and the overall standard 'quality system'. The aims and methods of the accreditation system were inspired by examples from the other side of the Atlantic, especially from Canada. The characteristics are: voluntary-based, self-evaluation, peer-review and aiming at continuous improvement of quality of care. Received: 15 April 2000 · Accepted: 15 April 2000     

Unitary perturbation theory: a generalization of two-by-two rotations

A generalization of the two-by-two rotation technique is proposed, permitting a whole row (column) of the matrix to be treated simultaneously. The method is based on the explicit analytical evaluation of the matrix exponent representing a symmetric combination of the individual rotations. Besides constructing the unitary transformation matrices, a new orthogonalization algorithm is also proposed. The resulting “unitary perturbation theory” and orthogonalization method may be useful in different areas. Received: 15 November 1999 / Accepted: 30 January 2000 / Published online: 19 April 2000     

Molecular structure of crepidioside a and isolipidiol fromCrepis multicaulis

Crepidioside A, a guaian-like sesquiterpene lactone, is isolated fromCrepis multicaulis Ldb, and identified. The structure 15-glycoside-2-oxo-5,7,6(H)-guai-1(10),3(4),11(13)-trien-6,12-olide is found from an x-ray structure analysis. 8-Epi-isolipidiol is isolated fromCrepis tectorum L. Its new polymorphic crystal structure is found from an x-ray structure analysis.Institute of Phytochemistry, Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Republic of Kazakhstan, fax (3212) 43 37 73, Translated from Khimiya Prirodnykh Soedinenii, No. 2, pp. 139–141, March–April, 2000.     

Strategies for computing chemical reactivity indices

 Two recent articles [(2000) J Am Chem Soc 122: 2010, (2001) J Am Chem Soc 123: 2007] have explored electron-density-based and external-potential-based chemical reactivity indices. In this article, methods are presented for computing these indices from the output of a Kohn–Sham density functional theory calculation. Received: 18 October 2000 / Accepted: 4 April 2001 / Published online: 9 August 2001     

A Case Study in the Chemical Engineering Freshman Course Using Enhanced Excel with Visual Basic and Power Point

A multicomponent gas-liquid system was considered as a case study project for the course Elementary Principles of Chemical Engineering. In this case study, students were responsible for preparing and using the graphical representation of vapor-liquid equilibrium (T_xy diagrams) for a variety of systems and conditions. The solution to this problem is designed as an interactive program utilizing Enhanced Excel, Visual Basic, and PowerPoint. Using a combination of these three software components necessitated the submission of the solution on a computer disk. Submitting only a printout of the same solution may not capture all of the information that is displayed when using generated events from interacting with the various software modules. By using Excel, freshman students can perform a what-if-analysis for which the problems solution is sought, with minimum efforts. Furthermore, students will have a decent exposure to the chemical engineering process considered for this case study. Moreover, Excel spreadsheets are useful and easier to modify for parametric studies on the overall process than any other computational tool or program.     

Determination of trace impurities in some nickel compounds by flame atomic absorption spectrometry after solid phase extraction using Amberlite XAD-16 resin

A simple flame atomic absorption spectrometric (FAAS) procedure for the determination of lead, bismuth, gold, palladium and cadmium as impurities in Raney nickel and nickel oxide was developed using a preconcentration step on an Amberlite XAD-16 resin packed column. Lead, bismuth, gold, palladium and cadmium were quantitatively recovered and separated from a solution containing 1 M HCl and 0.3 M NaI by the column system. Effects of the various parameters such as reagent concentrations, sample volume, matrix effects, etc. have been investigated. Under optimized conditions, the relative standard deviation of the combined method of sample treatment, preconcentration and determination with FAAS (n = 7) is generally lower than 12%. The limit of detection (3s, n = 20) was between 10–270 ng/g. The results were used for separation and preconcentration of five trace elements from nickel matrices. Received: 8 February 2000 / Revised: 31 March 2000 / Accepted: 7 April 2000     

Directed Aldol Condensations

The present article describes the discovery of a new procedure for aldol condensations for the preparation of α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds

1 G. Wittig, H. Pommer, and W. Stilz, German Patent 1199252 (April 5, 1963), BASF; Chem. Abstr. 63, P 1739c (1965).

. The scope of this process is demonstrated by many examples, including some from the natural products sector; at the same time, however, these examples also mark its limitations. The metalated Schiff's bases may be classified as ambident anions; this also explains acylations on the nitrogen. A comparison of the new directed aldol condensation with the formation of unsaturated carbonyl compounds through olefination via phosphorylids shows that the latter method fails when a ketone is used as the substrate. This is where the described procedure using metalated Schiff's bases proves its value.     

Metrology in laboratory medicine – Reference measurement systems

 The medical laboratory must provide results of measurements that are comparable over space and time in order to aid medical diagnosis and therapy. Thus, metrological traceability, preferably to the SI, is necessary. The task is formidable due to the many disciplines involved, the high production rate, short request-to-report time, small sample volumes, microheterogeneity of many analytes, and complex matrices. The prerequisite reference measurement systems include definition of measurand, unit of measurement (when applicable), consecutive levels of measurement procedures and calibrators in a calibration hierarchy, international organizations, reference measurement laboratories, dedicated manufacturers, written standards and guides for the medical laboratory, production of reference materials, internal and external quality control schemes, and increasingly accreditation. The present availability of reference measurement procedures and primary calibrators is shown to be insufficient to obtain international comparability of all types of quantity in laboratory medicine. Received: 19 April 2000 / Accepted: 3 July 2000     

Highly selective thiocyanate poly(vinyl chloride) membrane electrode based on a cadmium–Schiff’s base complex

A PVC membrane electrode based on a cadmium–salen (N,N′-bis-salicylidene-1,2ethylenediamine) complex as an anion carrier is described. The electrode has an anti-Hofmeister selectivity sequence with a preference for thiocyanate at pH 1.5–11.0. It has a linear response to thiocyanate from 1.0 × 10^–6 to 1.0 × 10^–1 mol L^–1 with a slope of 59.1 ± 0.2 mV per decade, and a detection limit of 7 × 10^–7 mol L^–1. This electrode has high selectivity for thiocyanate relative to many common organic and inorganic anions. The proposed sensor has a fast response time of approximately 15 s. It was applied to the determination of thiocyanate in a milk sample. Received: 1 December 2000 / Revised: 19 April 2001 / Accepted: 30 April 2001     

Lipids ofOriganum tytthanthum

The composition of lipids and fatty acids from the above-ground part ofOriganum tytthanthum Gontsch. (Lamiaceae) is studied. Lipids from the air-dried plant material are enriched in glycolipids, essential fatty acids, and biologically active lipophilic substances. The free fatty acids include 15-methylhexadecanoic acid (0.5 % by GLC).Translated from Khimiya Prirodnykh Soedinenii, No. 2, pp. 100–102, March–April, 2000.     

A simple method for a determination

The a term is a primary parameter that is used to indicate the deviation of the epithermal neutron distribution in the k ₀-standardization method of neutron activation analysis, k ₀-NAA. The calculation of a using a mathematical procedure is a challenge for some researchers. The calculation of a by the "bare-triple monitor" method is possible using the dedicated commercial software KAYZERO^®/SOLCOI^®. However, when this software is not available in the laboratory it is possible to carry out the calculation of a applying a simple iterative linear regression using any spreadsheets. This approach is described in this paper. The experimental data used in the example were obtained by the irradiation of a set of suitable monitors in the NAA #1 irradiation channel of the HANARO research reactor (KAERI, Korea). The results obtained by this iterative linear regression method agree well with the results calculated by the validated mathematical method.