Journal of Laboratory Medicine and Quality Assurance  2004;26(1):123-136

Annual Report on External Quality Assessment in Therapeutic Drug Monitoring in Korea (2003).

Jeong Ho KIM 1 ; Byung Kwang KIM ; Soo Youn LEE ; Sail CHUN ; Gye Cheol KWON ; Yeomin YOON ; Jong Baeck LIM ; Dong Hoon SHIN ; Kyung Eun SONG ; Kyung Ryul LEE ; Soon Pal SUH ; Jin Q KIM

Affiliations

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Keywords

Quality assurance; External quality assessment; Therapeutic drug monitoring

Country

Republic of Korea

Language

Korean

Abstract

Two trials of external quality assessment for Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (TDM) subcommittee of Korean Association of Quality Assurance for Clinical Pathology (KAQACP) were performed in 2003. Number of participating laboratories were 80 which is similar to those of the previous year. Response rates were elevated to 100.0% for both trials. Two kinds of control materials were requested to be tested in each trial so that each institution could know the possible systematic error. In both trials, 20 test items were responded at least from one laboratory. The average drug item was 7.0 per institution, which was elevated slightly from 6.5 in recent 5 years. The most common test items were valproic acid, digoxin, phenytoin, carbamazepine, theophylline, and phenobarbital, which were peformed in more than 75% of participating laboratories, followed by cyclosporine, lithium, methotrexate, tacrolimus, vancomycin, amikacin, gentamycin, salicylate, tobramycin, acetaminophen, primidone, free phenytoin, and amitryptyline. The most widely used TDM analyzer was Abbott TDx/TDxFLx (52%), but its proportion were decreased slightly comparing with the previous years. The interlaboratory coefficients of variations were not greatly improved comparing with previous years. In conclusion, the TDM external quality assessment of 2003 showed grossly similar pattern comparing with those of previous year, except that the response rate was elevated to 100% and two levels of control material were used in each trials.