Interchangeability of Heska Chemistry System Control with pooled feline plasma

Authors: Baral RM
Publication: Australian Veterinary Practitioner, Volume 55, Issue 3, pp 85-92, Sep 2025
Publisher: Australian Veterinary Association

Animal type: Cat
Article class: Clinical Article

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Abstract:

Background: Species-specific plasma or serum pools are considered the ideal material for quality control material (QCM) instead of commercially available QC reagents. Plasma or serum pools are impractical due to volume limitations, degradation and narrow analyte concentrations. Commercial QCM is routinely used at laboratories. The most readily available commercial QCM for veterinary practices using point-of-care (PoC) analysers are provided by the manufacturer. The author is unaware of any assessment equivalence of veterinary analyser supplied QCM to feline plasma/serum samples.

Objectives: The aims of this study were to

1. assess imprecision of feline pooled plasma (PP) and commercial QCM for fifteen biochemistry analytes measured on a Heska Element DC5X;
2. assess interchangeability of imprecision results between PP and commercial QCM, and;
3. determine if each analyte met recognized performance goals.

Methods: PP and QCM were assessed on a PoC analyser for 20 consecutive days. Coefficients of variation (CV) were determined for each matrix and assessed for equivalence. The CV for each analyte for each matrix was assessed by three performance goals.

Results: Nine analytes had equivalent CV for each matrix, four analytes had significantly different CV, two analytes were unable to be assessed. The four analytes with different CV met at least one performance goal for each matrix.

Conclusions: The commercially available QCM for Heska Element DC5X is appropriate to monitor performance. Some concentrations of the commercial QCM were much higher or lower than expected in clinical cases. Different levels reflecting expected normal and abnormal clinical results would be ideal.

Keywords: Biochemistry analyser, clinical chemistry, quality control, control material, imprecision, interchangeability, pooled plasma

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