ORIGINAL ARTICLE

¹ Department of Pathology, Canisius Wilhelmina Hospital, 6532 SZ Nijmegen, The Netherlands
² Department of Pathology, University Medical Centre, 3508 GA Utrecht, The Netherlands
³ Department of Pathology, University Medical Centre, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands
⁴ Department of Pathology, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital, 1066 CX Amsterdam, The Netherlands
⁵ Department of Pathology, Erasmus University Medical Centre, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands
⁶ Department of Pathology, Maastricht University Medical Centre, 6202 AZ Maastricht, The Netherlands
⁷ Department of Pathology, Free University Medical Centre, 1007 MB Amsterdam, The Netherlands
⁸ Department of Pathology, Academic Medical Centre, 1105 AZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands
⁹ Department of Pathology, Leiden University Medical Centre, 2300 RC Leiden, The Netherlands
¹⁰ Department of Pathology, Groningen University Medical Centre, 9713 EZ Groningen, The Netherlands

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr F Thunnissen
Canisius Wilhelmina Hospital, Weg door Jonkerbos 100, 6532 SZ Nijmegen, The Netherlands; e.thunnissen{at}cwz.nl

Aims: To describe the evolution of proficiency testing for molecular diagnostic pathology with respect to determining unambiguously the patient identity of tissue samples by microsatellite analysis.

Method: Four rounds of quality control exchanges of samples from different patients were sent with the purpose of identifying the correct origin of these samples. The samples were either paraffin wax embedded sections on glass, sections in tubes, or isolated DNA. Blinded samples were distributed to all participating laboratories. No restrictions to the method and short tandem repeat markers used for identification were imposed.

Results: In four subsequent rounds the number of participating laboratories increased from three to 10. The numbers of samples tested increased in time from five to 12. The microsatellite markers used by the different laboratories showed little overlap. In the first three rounds, in which isolated DNA was provided, all samples were accurately classified irrespective of the microsatellite markers used. In the last round, which also included paraffin wax embedded sections, a small number of laboratories experienced problems, either with amplification or incorrect classification of a few samples.

Conclusion: Proficiency testing was useful, and showed country wide high quality and correct identification of (patient) samples with molecular techniques for diagnostic purposes.

Abbreviations: EQA, external quality assurance; PCR, polymerase chain reaction; STR, short tandem repeat

Keywords: molecular pathology; quality control; proficiency testing; sample identification; microsatellite analysis

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?