Report of the Korean Association of External Quality Assessment Service on Peripheral Blood Smear Testing for Malaria in 2020

Jeonghyun Chang; Hye Ryun Lee; Je Eun Song; Tae-Hyun Um; and Sollip Kim

doi:10.15263/jlmqa.2021.43.4.185

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Report On Proficiency Testing

Lab Med Qual Assur 2021; 43(4): 185-189

Published online December 31, 2021

https://doi.org/10.15263/jlmqa.2021.43.4.185

Report of the Korean Association of External Quality Assessment Service on Peripheral Blood Smear Testing for Malaria in 2020

Jeonghyun Chang¹, Hye Ryun Lee², Je Eun Song³, Tae-Hyun Um¹ , and Sollip Kim¹

¹Department of Laboratory Medicine, Inje University Ilsan Paik Hospital, Goyang; ²Department of Laboratory Medicine, National Medical Center, Seoul; ³Department of Internal Medicine, Inje University Ilsan Paik Hospital, Goyang, Korea

Correspondence to:Sollip Kim
Department of Laboratory Medicine, Inje University Ilsan Paik Hospital, 170 Juhwa-ro, Ilsanseo-gu, Goyang 10380, Korea
Tel +82-31-910-9536
E-mail sollip.kim@paik.ac.kr

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

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Abstract

External quality assessment (EQA) of peripheral blood smear test for malaria was conducted as a pilot project in 2020 by the Korean Association of EQA Service. Two trials were performed with three different cases per trial. Scanned images for the whole slide with brief patient histories were distributed to the participating laboratories online. In total, 208 and 232 laboratories participated in the two trials, respectively. The acceptable rates for malaria detection were 96.1%–100.0% and those for identifying malarial species were 68.1%–97.6%. The acceptable rates for parasitemia count were 87.2%–94.6%. The EQA scheme assessing peripheral blood smear test for malaria can contribute to the improvement of the diagnostic ability of the participating laboratories.

Keywords: Korean Association of External Quality Assessment Service, Malaria, Plasmodium, Laboratory proficiency testing