Guidelines for blood smear preparation and staining procedure for setting up an external quality assessment scheme for blood smear interpretation. Part I: control material
Juan-Lluis Vives Corrons, Stéphanie Albarède, G Flandrin, Silke Heller, Katalin Horváth, Berend Houwen, Gunnar Nordin, Erika Sarkani, Milan Skitek, Marjan Van Blerk, Jean-Claude Libeer · Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM) · 2004
Blood smear analysis is a well known technique in medical laboratories. Clinical relevance of this analysis and its interpretation are very important. Consequently, monitoring of laboratory performance by an external quality assessment scheme is strongly recommended. Most starting external quality organizers set up a scheme for clinical chemistry. Due to a lack of guidance documents, many organizers are reluctant to offer a hematology scheme. This article aims to be a very practical guidance document for external quality assessment organizers for the set up of blood smear schemes.