SERUM LITHIUM - CAP SURVEY PERSPECTIVE

  • 1 January 1977
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 68  (1) , 162-164
Abstract
Lithium data from the 1975 College of American Pathologists Comprehensive Chemistry Survey program were analyzed. The results were organized into 5 method-dependent groups: 4 variations on emission flame spectrophotometry and 1 group containing all manual atomic absorption methods. The bias observed between flame emission and atomic absorption methods was correlated with the sample mean. In addition, 3 paired specimens were analyzed by mean comparison. Atomic absorption methods have a negative bias, but an apparent correlation with the sample mean indicates the probability of standardization error between the methods. This may be related to a protein depression effect and may be due to differences in viscosity between aqueous standards and serum-based samples. Both atomic absorption and flame emission methods demonstrate variability that is clinically satisfactory.

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