Detection Limits and Uncertainty of Measurements

Detection limits and uncertainty of measurement

Introduction

Laboratory reports guide diagnosis in all health facilities. The clinicians normally entrust the diagnosis on the laboratory technician. To resonate with the trust the technician is required to provide the clinician with all the relevant information in order to dictate diagnosis and eventual treatment. Results should always maintain legibility and accuracy in order to ensure precision on the diagnosis and medication to the patient (Huisman, 2007).

Detection limits

Detection limits are very important in medical settings for both clinicians and laboratories that is the minimum concentration of a factor that could be consistently detected and measured in a sample. Detection limit being the lowest concentration of a factor in a patients sample that is critical in influencing the diagnosis and treatment of the patient is very important information to that should be in the report that will reach the clinician. Results associated with low detection limits require even higher precision due to chance of misinterpretation and therefore laboratory technicians are obliged to provide this information to the clinicians so as to advice their decisions. When reporting results it is important to be accurate and precise to avoid errors associated with very low quantities of factor being investigated. False positive and false negatives highly skew results and cause confusion in treatment (Kristiansen and Kristensen, 1998).

Uncertainty of measurement

Uncertainty of measurement is the core element in the quality of the testing and calibration systems in laboratories. The uncertainty of measurement accounts for random and systematic errors. They have implications on the route of diagnosis and medication and therefore it is prudent for the technicians to calibrate their equipment appropriately and ensure keenness and honesty in executing sensitive measurement tasks on patient samples. These uncertainties are caused by different factors such as calibration, weighing pipettes, temperature and fluctuations in instruments. The uncertainty of measurement is very important information to the clinician for patient management so as to ensure that the results are of appropriate quality and are reliable. The laboratory technicians have this information but do not include them in the reports that will be disseminated to the clinicians for diagnosis and treatment. There are many potential uncertainties related to medical tests that can considerably affect the test results such as poor specimen collection or transport, biological variations, presence of drugs and also clerical and reporting errors. Such factors are excluded from the estimation of uncertainty of measurement because pre and post diagnostic influences do not affect the natural uncertainty of the