1 How to examine the effects of preanalytical factors? XXX Nordic Congress in Clinical Biochemistry Copenhagen Ulrik Gerdes Klinisk Biokemisk Laboratorium ∙ Center for Psykiatrisk Grundforskning ∙ Risskov
2 Suggestions (I) Think of the task as a comparison of methods, and use statistical models that are developed for that purpose Always include a procedure (method) that is either considered ‘state of the art’ and/or is your standard procedure Design the study so that you can both examine the effects on bias (systematic differences) and variation Eliminate (or minimize) irrelevant sources of variation Increase the size of the study to increase the precision of the estimates of the effects Study the effects over a range of measurement values for the biochemical variables in question
3 Suggestions (II) Don’t use aggregated statistical test (i.e. p-values) to evaluate whether two procedures are comparable Compare the observed differences with the quality goals you have set for the analytical method Share your results with others!
4 Summary Patient/Sample Procedure A Procedure B Analysis Data analysisEvaluation Randomize! Use plenty! Use a proper model! Use dublicates or triplicates! What are the effects compared to the quality goals for the analysis?
5 Thank you for your attention!
6 Questions?