APPLICATION OF MEASUREMENT UNCERTAINTY IN CLINICAL LABORATORY

Sairi Satari

Chemical Pathology Unit

Penang Hospital

The uncertainty of measurement is a fundamental concept indicating the range within the “true value of a measurement should lie”. Although not commonly reported with the result, the calculation of measurement uncertainty (MU) has become common in the clinical laboratory routine. MU estimates are usually used in analytical troubleshooting and interpretation of pathology results. In analytical troubleshooting, the expanded uncertainty will be obtained by multiplying MU with 1.96, In the interpretation of numerical pathology results, the patients’ results are compared with the reference interval or medical decision limit and the expanded uncertainty will be obtained by multiplying MU with 1.65. If the interpretation is done by comparing with previous result from the same patient, the expanded uncertainty will be obtained by multiplying MU with 2.77. In patients’ management, MU is significant during validation of the patients’ results for accuracy and reliability.