Listmembers who have agonised over which testosterone assay to use in women should be aware that a random number generator may be just as useful!
The latest edition of Clinical Chemistry includes an article describing a major comparison study of commercial immunoassays with ID-GCMS (the reference method), and an Editorial deploring the current state-of-the-art of testosterone assays.
Go here for links
http://www.ukneqas.org.uk/saf01.htm
To those who have followed the UK NEQAS ID-GCMS exercises over the years (you can download a pdf of the latest one for testosterone from the SAF link), these findings will come as no surprise.
A major collaborative effort between laboratory, clinical and industry personnel is needed to address this issue.
Useful discussions were had at the UK NEQAS SAF meeting last December; more concerted action is needed now.
Jonathan Middle
UK NEQAS Birmingham
tel 0121 414 7300, fax 0121 414 1179
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The opinions expressed are mine alone and do not necessarily represent those of UK NEQAS Birmingham, the UK NEQAS Organisation, the University Hospital Birmingham NHS Trust or University of Birmingham.
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