I welcome Phillip Jordan's comments - it is also nice to have
someone agree with me from time to time :-)
As Phillip suggest, we cannot allow the DCCT / UK PDS evidence
to 'fossilise' HbA1c methodology at a poorer state of the art than is
possible now and stifle future development.
Manufacturers should be encouraged to work pro-actively to
embrace 'proper' standardisation initiatives and improve specificity
for the (now) defined chemical entity - "IFCC HbA1c".
We at UK NEQAS Birmingham are hoping to add IFCC reference
method values to our glycated haemoglobin EQA scheme reports
(we already have DCCT reference method values) as soon as they
are available. This should provide a set of comparisons which all
can use to make further progress. Since we only distribute fresh
whole blood from diabetic volunteers, we will avoid the problem of
the lyophilisation matrix effects to which Phillip refers.
I welcome further comment from manufacturers too!
JGM
Jonathan Middle PhD
Organiser UK NEQAS for Steroid Hormones
Chairman UK NEQAS Executive
Deputy Director UK NEQAS (Birmingham)
UK NEQAS PO Box 3909 Birmingham B15 3NY
tel 0121 414 7300, fax 0121 414 1179
[log in to unmask] http://www.ukneqas.org.uk
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