Allergen Specific IgE EQA

Accreditation Status:

Date Scheme started:

1988

Clinical Applicability:

Diagnosis and management of allergic disease

Analytes:

(SER/032) The programme includes the assessment of common or clinically important, individual IgE specificities, for example:

     D1 Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus
     E1 Cat epithelium
     E5 Dog dander
     F1 Egg white
     F2 Cow’s milk
     F13 Peanut
     F17 Hazel nut
     G6 Timothy grass
     I1 Bee venom
     I3 Wasp venom
     K82 Latex
     M3 Aspergillus fumigatus
     M6 Alternaria alternata
     T3 Birch
     W6 Mugwort

Other allergen specificities may be included, subject to the availability of clinically validated donor serum units

Units for Reporting:

Grade and kU/L (arbitrary)

Samples Distributed:

Liquid format. Normal and pathological human serum

Number of Distributions per year:

Number of Samples per Distribution:

Frequency of Distributions:

Every two months as outlined in the Distribution Schedule. Four allergen specific IgE tests will be analysed on each specimen.

Schedule of Analysis:

Data entry is via the web for the submission of results. Data analysis commences 21 days after sample dispatch. Late returns are accepted and will contribute to the laboratory's cumulative performance statistics.

Data Analysis:

Analysis by grade shows the overall response and the method specific responses.

Reports show method specific statistics. Individual laboratory performance is expressed in terms of MRBIS, SDBIS and MRVIS, the DV for calculation of VI being taken from the MLTM, GLTM or ALTM as appropriate.

Chosen Coefficient of Variation for Allergen Specific IgE is 12%

Performance Scoring:

Cumulative performance scores are based on the quantitative response with MRVIS scoring over a running window of twelve samples or twelve months

Criteria of Performance:

Performance assessment is allergen specific. Quantitative performance is assessed for each allergen, and is over a running period of 6 distributions containing that allergen (12 months)

	MRVIS
Ideal	< 50
Good	50 - 100
Adequate	101 - 200
Poor	>200 or SDBIS > 200

Overall MIS (OMIS) greater than 4 will also be considered as poor performance

Persistent Poor Performance:

Defined as being in the Poor Performance category for two or more successive Distributions