The ability of an analytical method to assess small variations in the concentration of analyte is referred to as

To determine the confidence intervals of percentiles of ranked data (data arranged by magnitude of value), it is most appropriately assessed using

John works in a molecular diagnostics laboratory and receives a blood sample that has the name of a close friend printed on the bar-coded label. The genetic test that is ordered on the friend’s sample would provide diagnostic information about a disorder that has a poor prognosis, and the test is usually performed by John. He asks a fellow employee to analyze the sample for him and not divulge the results. This ethical issue concerns

An important assumption that is made when using parametric methods to estimate percentiles and their confidence intervals in determining reference limits is that

Which one of the following anticoagulants is considered unacceptable for a blood sample that will be used for DNA amplification in the polymerase chain reaction?

An individual working in a clinical chemistry laboratory is married to a sales representative who works for a company that sells chemistry laboratory supplies. When the laboratory manager requests a list of needed supplies, cost of supplies, and vendors, this individual only recommends the spouse’s company as the vendor. This is considered to be a(n)

A blood collection tube containing a specific amount of additive is only half filled with blood instead of being completely filled. Will this collection affect laboratory test results?

A physician asks your laboratory to begin performing thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) analyses on all specimens that have a free thyroxine (FT4) analysis ordered, a practice that your laboratory currently does not perform. Your laboratory typically performs TSH only on those FT4 specimens that are outside the population-based reference interval. The physician suggests using subject-based reference intervals, claiming that population-based intervals are clinically insensitive. What is the basis of this claim?

Calculate the clinical sensitivity for the following data: in a group of 80 patients diagnosed with sickle cell disease, 72 had positive test results. The clinical sensitivity of this test is

A list of intervals followed by a list of frequencies is referred to as a

The type of urine specimen that is best for detection of abnormal amounts of certain analytes such as chorionic gonadotropin for pregnancy testing is a

Comparisons of measurement values between clinical laboratories require a hierarchical approach that obliges routine clinical chemistry measurements to be referred back to a reference measurement procedure. This concept is known as

A patient visits her physician stating that her prescribed painkiller is not working to reduce the pain following her recent surgery. A friend of the patient claims that the same painkiller “worked wonders” to reduce her pain after the same surgery. The physician states that the difference in the effect of the drug might be caused by ____, which is studied in pharmacogenetics

A statistic is a

How are the formulae for population mean and standard deviation (σ) stated?

When a coagulated blood sample is separated by centrifugation, the liquid component is separated from the cells. This “serum” is the

Hemolysis will cause potassium _____ when analyzed.

True negatives ÷ (false positives + true negatives) × 100 is the formula for determining

In a chemistry methods analysis, linearity refers to the

As an anticoagulant, heparin acts to