Skip to main navigation Skip to search Skip to main content

A study of various estimators for the derivation of quality control procedures from patient erythrocyte indices

  • B. S. Bull
  • , R. M. Elashoff
  • , D. C. Heilbron
  • , J. Couperus

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The derivation of quality control data from patient laboratory values presupposes, first, that the distribution of those values is stable over long periods of time; second, that it is possible to estimate accurately the mean of the entire population from a small sample of that population. That the first presupposition is true for erythrocyte indices has been shown elsewhere. The second presupposition is examined in this paper. Six estimators were tried in turn on two data batches, each consisting of 480 patients from two university hospitals. An estimator which smoothed the data (decreased the effect of outlying values) and at the same time showed the characteristics of a moving average was found sufficiently effective to serve as the major basis for quality control of an automated whole blood analyzer.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)473-481
Number of pages9
JournalAmerican Journal of Clinical Pathology
Volume61
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 1974

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

  • Pathology and Forensic Medicine

Cite this