Alternative method for uninterrupted and inexpensive internal quality control process in clinical biochemistry laboratory

IQC and EQA are the two eyes of the quality assurance in the Clinical laboratory. If one is affected the whole vision of the lab is become dark. To avoid the blind spots in the quality report delivery an uninterrupted QC run is the most essential one. Routine IQC run performance monitoring have greatly increased, due to increasing automation in clinical laboratories. The constant use of commercial QC material is not possible for many laboratories due to non-availability of sample load or not affordable. Here we studied the alternative of IQC using human sera homemade as QC material with anti-freezing agent as a stabilizer. To prepare and validate the inexpensive and stable quality controls (QC) using human sera. The in-house serum based IQC was prepared as per standard protocol using ethylene glycol as anti-freezing agent. The initial 30 values were used for calculation of mean, SD and CV for 21 routinely measured analytes and results were compared with those of commercially available lyophilized human sera. The average concentrations of 21 commonly analyzed constituents were found to be near the middle of the physiological range of healthy subjects and the homemade serum could be one of the good substitutes for the commercial material. The narrower CVs of the analytes imply a lesser vial to vial variation in the home made sera. It is concluded that inexpensive materials can potentially use as QC material.