Deciding the optimum interval between specimen collections: theory and nomograms.
Open Access
- 1 August 1987
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Clinical Chemistry
- Vol. 33 (8) , 1436-1438
- https://doi.org/10.1093/clinchem/33.8.1436
Abstract
The time interval between collection of specimens from an individual patient is usually determined empirically. For analytes whose values decline according to first-order kinetics--for example, enzyme activities in serum after an acute myocardial infarction, tumor markers in serum after excision of the tumor, and drugs in serum after an overdose--the minimum time between collections (delta T) depends on the elimination half-life (t) and the analytical precision (CVA), according to the equation: delta T = (1/log2) X t X log (2.33 CVA/100 + 1). Nomograms showing this relationship graphically have been generated.This publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit:
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- Medically Useful Criteria for Analytic Performance of Laboratory TestsAmerican Journal of Clinical Pathology, 1985
- Short-Term and Long-Term Intra-Individual Variations and Critical Differences of Clinical Chemical Laboratory Parameterscclm, 1985
- A Study of the Accuracy and Precision of Clinical Chemistry Determinations in 170 Canadian LaboratoriesClinical Chemistry, 1963