An Evaluation for Use of Dried Tube Specimens as Internal Quality Control Samples for HIV Diagnosis
Keywords:
Dried tube specimen, Quality control sample, HIV quality controlAbstract
It has been well-recognized that quality control (QC) samples are essential for routine testing results, particularly HIV serology testing conducted by a rapid test. This study was to evaluate Dried Tube Specimens (DTS) for implementing as QC samples at laboratory networks of RMSC 1/1 Chaing Rai and RMSC 3 Nakhonsawan. DTS were delivered to 48 community hospital laboratories and were tested 1 time a week for 4 months. It was found that 1302 of 1,350 (96.44%) tests and 48 of 1,350 (3.55%) tests were reported positive and negative, respectively. Our study suggested that it is possible to use DTS as QC samples for HIV rapid testing. HIV misclassification might possibly be due to testing procedure, reading test results or competency of technicians. Owing to its ease of preparation and storage, DTS are alternative tools for community hospital laboratories to use as quality control materials as a requirement for routine testing in compliance with medical laboratory standards.
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