Evaluation of imprecision, bias and total error of clinical chemistry analysers.

Context Two Biosystems analysers are used in our laboratory, a fully automated A25 and a semi-automated BTS-350. Internal quality control is done for both but external quality control only for A25. As BTS-350 is used for backup, it is important that the results of both analysers are not just comparable but also within predefined limits of systematic, random and total error (TE). Aim To evaluate the imprecision, bias and TE of the two Biosystem analysers. Materials and Methods Biosystems level-1 quality control sera lot number 70A was run in duplicate for 32 days on both the analysers. Between day imprecision (measured by the coefficient of variation), bias and TE were calculated for ten analytes and were checked to see whether they are within the acceptable minimum limits, desirable limits and optimum limits of allowable error based on specifications on Westgard's website updated in 2014. Results On both the analysers, all the analytes except alkaline phosphatase were within the acceptable minimum limits of TE and most analytes were within the desirable limits of TE. Only TG on A25 was within the optimum limit of TE. Conclusion The two Biosystem analysers performed comparably with errors within acceptable limits for most analytes. BTS-350 was found to be a suitable and ready backup analyser for A25.