Publication Date:
2013-02-23
Description:
Erroneous laboratory results can adversely affect medical decisions. While the prevalence of laboratory errors has been well documented, 1 their consequences, particularly when they go unnoticed, are less well reported. We describe the clinical consequences of a series of falsely elevated laboratory results that went unnoticed for 10 days. On 20 June 2012, an endocrinologist alerted the laboratory to possible spurious results after noticing extremely high insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) concentrations in two clinically asymptomatic patients. The ensuing investigations revealed an error in the analyser (Immulite 2000, Siemens, Surrey, UK) that performed five endocrine tests, including IGF-1, and affected all results reported on 11 June. The error eluded the internal quality control (QC) testing performed routinely prior to patient sample analysis. All erroneous results (n=63) were unknowingly reported. Retesting of all specimens belonging to 49 patients revealed 2.1- to 〉108-fold reductions in their results (see online supplementary table...
Print ISSN:
0021-9746
Electronic ISSN:
1472-4146
Topics:
Medicine
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