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Publisher Summary The diagnosis and investigation of disease by means of chemical analyses of the blood and other body fluids have become an indispensable part of the practice of medicine. Some of the analyses, such as blood glucose, plasma urea, electrolytes, and the assessment of acid–base balance, are of great importance in the management of acutely ill patients, and for such investigations results are usually required on the same day, often within the minimum period set by the time needed for transport of specimens and performance of analyses. This chapter examines the sources of analytical and associated errors in the clinical chemistry laboratory and the ways in which these errors can be detected, evaluated, reduced, and subsequently controlled. The chapter considers those sources of error that are, particularly, likely to affect the work of a clinical laboratory. These errors arise mainly from the need to perform many analyses on large numbers of samples with a variable degree of urgency and from the fact that most of these analyses have to be conducted on plasma or serum, which are viscous protein-rich fluids available only in restricted quantities. |
