Assessment of applying internal quality control and it is effect on accuracy of blood glucose measurement in some medical Laboratory in Kosti City, White Nile State, Sudan

Abstract

Quality control is essential in the clinical laboratory in order to ensure reliability of tests results, with acceptable levels of accuracy and precision. The impact of laboratory analysis in patient care is known as contributing to more than 70% of medical decisions. Internal quality control is an internal verification that the test yields day to day consistent results. The main objective of this study was to assess the effect of applying internal quality control on accuracy of test result in the clinical chemistry laboratories in Kosti City, Sudan. The study involved nine laboratories, stabilized control sera with known concentration (normal and pathological) was used to determine precision and accuracy. Structured questionnaires were also administered to assess the practice of internal quality control. Data were analyzed by using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version16. For validation of analytical process: means, standard deviations, coefficient of variations, accuracy and precision were obtained. The accuracy for the nine laboratories was 77% for both normal and pathological control sera and precision was 66.7%. Coefficients of variations for seven laboratories were below 10%. The study found that most of these laboratories do not follow the criteria of internal quality control associated with; calibration /recalibration instruments and pipettes (66.7%), use of control sera (55.6%), control charts (77.8%) and SOPs (77.8%). In conclusion, applying of internal quality control on clinical laboratory may help in the accuracy of test results, therefore, improving public health in developing countries.