Lab Med Qual Assur 2024; 46(4): 194-199
Published online December 31, 2024
https://doi.org/10.15263/jlmqa.2024.46.4.194
Copyright © Korean Association of External Quality Assessment Service.
Yong Jun Kwon1 , Yu Jeong Lee2
, Moon-Ju Kim2
, and Eun Jeong Won1,2,3
1Department of Laboratory Medicine, Chonnam National University Hospital, Gwangju; 2Department of Parasitology and Tropical Medicine, Chonnam National University Medical School, Hwasun; 3Department of Laboratory Medicine, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
Correspondence to:Eun Jeong Won
Department of Laboratory Medicine, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, 88 Olympic-ro 43-gil, Songpa-gu, Seoul 05505, Korea
Tel +82-2-3010-4532
E-mail ejwon@amc.seoul.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/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The Korean Association of External Quality Assessment Service conducts annual proficiency surveys 3 times a year (2022–2023). The External Quality Assessment panels included three types of samples: image samples (MPI-22-01–03; MPI-23-01–03), pre-made slide samples (MPS-22-01–03; MPS-23-01–03), and formalin-fixed samples (MPF-22-01–03; MPF-23-01–03). The overall agreement rates were 93.5% in 2022 (participant laboratory numbers: 202–209) and 97.5% in 2023 (participant laboratory numbers: 198–206). The agreement rates were significantly lower for the MPS samples compared with the MPI or MPF samples (86.6% for MPS vs. 98.9%/95.1% for MPI/MPF samples, P<0.001 in 2022; 95.1% for MPS vs. 99.0%/98.5% for MPI/MPF samples, P<0.01 in 2023). Notably, MPS-22-01, which contained Metagonimus yokogawai, exhibited the lowest agreement of 61.4%, while MPS-23-03, also containing M. yokogawai, showed a higher agreement of 93.7%. This underscores the educational value of external quality assessment. Based on our expanded survey of clinical parasitology, continuous education on various parasitic infections is essential to address any experience gap in the inspection of clinical laboratories.
Keywords: Quality control, Parasitology, Formalin-fixed specimen
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