A real-time process monitoring scheme for blood center NAT using the median of internal control CT value
10.13303/j.cjbt.issn.1004-549x.2026.03.013
- VernacularTitle:血站核酸检测基于内标CT值中位数的实时过程监控方案建立
- Author:
Yuntao XU
1
;
Jiaqiang ZHU
1
;
Zuomei YIN
1
;
Li MU
1
;
Huiping ZHANG
1
;
Xingfeng ZHANG
1
;
Lijing QIAO
1
Author Information
1. Department of Laboratory, Linyi Central Blood Station, Linyi 276000, China
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
nucleic acid testing;
quality control;
real-time quality control;
median absolute deviation
- From:
Chinese Journal of Blood Transfusion
2026;39(3):391-396
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
Objective: To establish a real-time quality control scheme based on the median (MD-IC) of internal control cycle threshold value in negative samples (NEG-IC-CT), so as to monitor anomalies such as progressive drift in nucleic acid testing system not covered by conventional internal quality control (IQC) in blood center nucleic acid laboratories, and to verify its feasibility. Methods: The internal control CT values of 54 426 negative samples were retrospectively collected. These samples were from four reagent batches of the two new and old equipment sets during the operation of the Wantai nucleic acid testing system in our blood center. The daily median of NEG-IC-CT values was used as the research indicator. Control limits were calculated using median absolute deviation (MAD) to construct the Median-MAD quality control chart. The monitoring performance of this scheme for the operation status of the testing system was simultaneously evaluated. Results: Statistical analysis showed significant differences in NEG-IC-CT value distribution between the new and old equipment sets, as well as between the two different reagent batches of the old equipment (P<0.000 1). The NEG-IC-CT value performance of the two different reagent batches of the new equipment was no significant difference in distribution (P>0.05). This scheme identified three typies of distinct anomalies. The out-of-control events observed with the old equipment in both the O1 and O2 reagent batches suggested potential performance decay due to equipment aging. The unreported change of reagent batch in time of Phase B with new equipment caused a stepwise drift on the quality control chart. In the later stage of Phase A with the new equipment, an alert was triggered, indicating potential quality risks associated with practices such as the mixed use of the remaining reagents and extremely long operator working hours. Conclusion: The realtime quality control scheme based on NEG-IC-CT value established in this study has been preliminarily validated for its monitoring effectiveness in nucleic acid testing in our blood center. This scheme performed well in detecting differences among testing systems and reagent batches, serving as an effective supplement to routine internal quality control. It can provide an intuitive and effective evaluation method for monitoring the performance of the nucleic acid testing process at blood center.
