Validation of a mobile clinical pathology laboratory for canine hematology and biochemistry

Abstract

Background: In clinical diagnosis and research, it is often essential to carry out laboratory tests that provide reliable results rapidly. However, in some circumstances, these tests are not available at the patient’s location, leading to a delay before analysis that increases turnaround time and can cause pre-analytical errors. To this end, a new mobile laboratory van containing one hematology and one biochemistry benchtop analyzers was developed, and a validation study was performed under field conditions (i.e., after trips of varying distances) with canine specimens and quality control materials. Results: Linearity was considered acceptable for all variables. Coefficient of variation was < 5% for biochemical variables and most hematological ones (0.0–8.11%) and imprecision was in line with the recommendations for all variables except for neutrophil count in the short-term imprecision. Observed total error for albumin with the quality control material was higher than allowable total error, secondary to a high bias. The comparison with the same model of analyzer showed significant bias for nearly all variables but observed total error remained lower than acceptable total error for all variables except for lymphocyte and reticulocyte counts. Conclusion: Both analyzers exhibited acceptable performance in the mobile laboratory operating conditions, making them suitable for future use in the field.