Quality Requirements
Quality Requirements for Dogs, Cats, and Horses?
In a new paper, two scientists perform a literature survey of the veterinary diagnostic literature and attempt to calculate basic quality requirements for common analytes - for the non-human species.
Analytical Quality Requirements For Veterinary Diagnostics
The table below contains information on calculated quality requirements developed and published in "Quality control validation, application of sigma metrics, and performance comparison between two biochemistry analyzers in a commerical veterinary laboratory", Farr AJ, Freeman KP. J Vet Diagn Invest 20:536-544 (2008).
See their accompanying essay on these requirements.
A key part of this paper was a review of the literature to determine quality requirements for the major non-human domestic species (dog, cat, horse). To our knowledge, this review of the veterinary literature is the first of its kind. Bear in mind, some of these requirements are in different units than those generally used in the US. So they may not be immediately comparable.
| Analyte | Species | Reference Interval |
Clinical decision level
|
Calculated quality requirement (TEa, %)
|
| Albumin (g/l) | Dog | 25- 41 | Low:22.5 | 11 |
| Alkaline phosphatase (U/l) | Cat | <60.0 | High:80 | 25 |
| Alanine aminotransferease (U/l) | Dog, cat | 5-60 | High: 120 | 50 |
| Amylase (U/l) | Dog, cat | 100 - 1,200 | High: 1,800 | 33 |
| Aspartate aminotransferase | Horse | 100-370 | High: 500 | 26 |
| Bile acids (umol/l) | Cat | 0.1 - 10 | High: 13 | 23 |
| Total bilirubin (umol/l) | Dog, cat | 0.1 - 5.1 | High: 9.3 | 50 |
| Total calcium (mmol/l) | Dog | 2.45 - 3.10 | Low: 2.1 | 16 |
| High: 3.6 | 14 | |||
| Chloride (mmol/l) | Dog | 100-116 | Low: 95 | 5 |
| High: 122 | 5 | |||
| Cholesterol (mmol/l) | Dog | 3.2 - 6.2 | Low: 1.9 | 68 |
| High: 10.0 | 38 | |||
| Creatine kinase (U/l) | Horse | 20 - 225 | High: 340 | 34 |
| Creatinine (umol/l) | Dog | 20 - 150 | High: 180 | 17 |
| Glucose (mmol/l) | Dog, cat | 3.3 - 5.8 | Low: 2.75 | 20 |
| High: 7.25 | 20 | |||
| Gamma glutamyl transferase (U/l) | Horse | 10 - 45 | High: 60 | 25 |
| Lipase (U/l) | Dog | 0.1 - 200 | High: 400 | 50 |
| Inorganic phosphorous (mmol/l) | Dog | 0.8 - 1.6 | Low: 0.6 | 33 |
| High: 2.0 | 20 | |||
| Potassium (mmol/l) | Dog | 3.6 - 5.6 | Low: 3.2 | 12.5 |
| High: 6.2 | 10 | |||
| Sodium (mmol/l) | Dog | 135 -155 | Low: 128 | 5 |
| High: 163 | 5 | |||
| Total Protein (g/l) | Dog | 55 - 75 | Low: 50 | 10 |
| High: 83 | 10 | |||
| Urea (mmol/l) | Dog | 2.5 - 7.5 | Low: 2.0 | 25 |
| High: 8.0 | 16 |