Point-of-care testing (POCT) refers to any laboratory testing performed outside the conventional reference laboratory and implies close proximity to patients. Instrumental POCT systems consist of small, handheld or benchtop analyzers. These have potential utility in many veterinary settings, including private clinics, academic veterinary medical centers, the community (eg, remote area veterinary medical teams), and for research applications in academia, government, and industry. Concern about the quality of veterinary in-clinic testing has been expressed in published veterinary literature; however, little guidance focusing on POCT is available. Recognizing this void, the ASVCP formed a subcommittee in 2009 charged with developing quality assurance (QA) guidelines for veterinary POCT. Guidelines were developed through literature review and a consensus process. Major recommendations include (1) taking a formalized approach to POCT within the facility, (2) use of written policies, standard operating procedures, forms, and logs, (3) operator training, including periodic assessment of skills, (4) assessment of instrument analytical performance and use of both statistical quality control and external quality assessment programs, (5) use of properly established or validated reference intervals, (6) and ensuring accurate patient results reporting. Where possible, given instrument analytical performance, use of a validated 13s control rule for interpretation of control data is recommended. These guidelines are aimed at veterinarians and veterinary technicians seeking to improve management of POCT in their clinical or research setting, and address QA of small chemistry and hematology instruments. These guidelines are not intended to be all-inclusive; rather, they provide a minimum standard for maintenance of POCT instruments in the veterinary setting.
Owing to lack of governmental regulation of veterinary laboratory performance, veterinarians ideally should demonstrate a commitment to self-monitoring and regulation of laboratory performance from within the profession. In response to member concerns about quality management in veterinary laboratories, the American Society for Veterinary Clinical Pathology (ASVCP) formed a Quality Assurance and Laboratory Standards (QAS) committee in 1996. This committee recently published updated and peer-reviewed Quality Assurance Guidelines on the ASVCP website. The Quality Assurance Guidelines are intended for use by veterinary diagnostic laboratories and veterinary research laboratories that are not covered by the US Food and Drug Administration Good Laboratory Practice standards (Code of Federal Regulations Title 21, Chapter 58). The guidelines have been divided into 3 reports on 1) general analytic factors for veterinary laboratory performance and comparisons, 2) hematology and hemostasis, and 3) clinical chemistry, endocrine assessment, and urinalysis. This report documents recommendations for control of general analytical factors within veterinary clinical laboratories and is based on section 2.1 (Analytical Factors Important In Veterinary Clinical Pathology, General) of the newly revised ASVCP QAS Guidelines. These guidelines are not intended to be all-inclusive; rather, they provide minimum guidelines for quality assurance and quality control for veterinary laboratory testing. It is hoped that these guidelines will provide a basis for laboratories to assess their current practices, determine areas for improvement, and guide continuing professional development and education efforts.
The purpose of this document is to provide total allowable error (TE ) recommendations for commonly analyzed hematology measurands for veterinary personnel. These guidelines define relevant terminology and highlight considerations specific to hematology measurands. They also provide reasons and guidelines for using TE in instrument performance evaluation, including recommendations for when the total observed error exceeds the recommended TE . Biological variation-based quality specifications are briefly discussed. The appendix describes the derivation of the hematology TE recommendations and provides resources for external quality assurance/proficiency testing programs and a worksheet for implementation of the guidelines.
: In December 2009, the American Society for Veterinary Clinical Pathology (ASVCP) Quality Assurance and Laboratory Standards committee published the updated and peer‐reviewed ASVCP Quality Assurance Guidelines on the Society's website. These guidelines are intended for use by veterinary diagnostic laboratories and veterinary research laboratories that are not covered by the US Food and Drug Administration Good Laboratory Practice standards (Code of Federal Regulations Title 21, Chapter 58). The guidelines have been divided into 3 reports: (1) general analytical factors for veterinary laboratory performance and comparisons; (2) hematology, hemostasis, and crossmatching; and (3) clinical chemistry, cytology, and urinalysis. This particular report is one of 3 reports and provides recommendations for control of preanalytical and analytical factors related to hematology for mammalian and nonmammalian species, hemostasis testing, and crossmatching and is adapted from sections 1.1 and 2.3 (mammalian hematology), 1.2 and 2.4 (nonmammalian hematology), 1.5 and 2.7 (hemostasis testing), and 1.6 and 2.8 (crossmatching) of the complete guidelines. These guidelines are not intended to be all‐inclusive; rather, they provide minimal guidelines for quality assurance and quality control for veterinary laboratory testing and a basis for laboratories to assess their current practices, determine areas for improvement, and guide continuing professional development and education efforts.
reticulocyte analysis in dogs has been reported to range from 8% to 23% in samples with mean reticulocyte counts ranging from 1.07% to 23.18%.1 Coefficient of variation has not been reported for manual reticulocyte analysis of cats.Recently, fluorochrome thiazole orange has been used in flow cytometric enumeration of human" and canine' reticulocytes and is a more reproducible technique than the manual method. The objective of this study was to determine if thiazole orange could be used for the enumeration of cat reticulocytes by flow cytometry. This report describes the optimal reticulocyte staining technique: using thiazole orange for flow cytometric enumeration ofcat reticulocytes in blood samples from normal and anemic animals. Abstract. Hemolytic anemia was induced in five Domestic Shorthair cats (four adult males and one spayed female obtained from a breeding colony at Colorado State University, CO), and blood samples were analyzed from five other cats (two castrated male Domestic Shorthairs, one castrated male Domestic Longhair, one castrated male Persian, and one spayed female Siamese presented to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital at Colorado State University for miscellaneous problems). Blood samples taken from these cats had percentages of aggregate reticulocytes that ranged from 0% to 14.5% as determined by manual counting and were used to identify the best technique for staining cat reticulocytes for flow cytometric analysis. The best technique was mixing a blood sample (112,000 dilution) with 0.2 J.lg thiazole orange in 1 ml of diluent and incubating the mixture in the dark at room temperature for 30 to 60 minutes. The percentage of reticulocytes determined by flow cytometry correlated well (r = 0.88) with manually determined aggregate reticulocyte percentages; no significant differences were observed between the two techniques (P > 0.05). For the conditions used, punctate reticulocytes were not detected by flow cytometry. Samples with very high platelet numbers and very low packed cell volumes may show falsely elevated percentages of reticulocytes as determined by flow cytometry. The reproducibility of the flow cytometric technique was good; the coefficient of variation ranged from 4.8% to 17.9% in two samples with two different times of incubation. Staining of cat aggregate reticulocytes with thiazole orange and use of flow cytometric quantification is a reproducible technique that has a good correlation with the manual reticulocyte counting method.
Renal disease is a major cause of illness in captive and wild avian species. Current renal disease markers (e.g., uric acid, blood urea nitrogen, and creatinine) are insensitive. Two endogenous markers, creatine and N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase (NAG), were selected for study in the pigeon (Columba livia). Representative organs from four pigeons were surveyed to determine those exhibiting the highest level of each marker. In a separate study, NAG and creatine from plasma and urine were assayed before and after gentamicin (50 mg/kg twice daily), administration for up to 9 days. Observer-blinded pathologic scoring (five saline solution controls, 17 treated birds) was used to verify the presence of renal disease that corresponded to marker increases. The first study revealed that kidney tissue had the highest NAG activity (by approximately six times), and pectoral muscle had the most creatine (>900 times). In response to gentamicin, plasma creatine (>five times) and NAG increased (approximately six times), which paralleled uric acid (>10 times). Urine creatine (approximately 60 times) and NAG increased dramatically (approximately 50 times) in response to gentamicin. In conclusion, NAG, especially in the urine, may be of value to noninvasively detect renal toxin exposures and to monitor potentially nephrotoxic drugs, and might be of value to screen free-ranging birds in large exhibits or in the wild by assaying fresh urate samples at feeding stations.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.