CLSI Publishes New Guideline for Analysis of Body Fluids

July 12, 2006

Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) published a new document, Analysis of Body Fluids in Clinical Chemistry; Proposed Guideline (C49-P).

This document provides guidance for clinical diagnostic laboratories to apply measurement procedures to body fluids, as well as for reporting and interpreting those results.

Emphasis is placed on:

• The common clinical situations for this use.
• Acceptable practice for measuring analytes without extended method verification for abnormal body fluids.
• Influence of biologic and analytic variation on interpretation of results.
• Variability in comparing results between different instrument manufacturers.
• Recommended reporting format.

This document does not consider serum, plasma, whole blood or fluids for which assays typically have performance claims in the measurement procedure documentation.

The new, proposed guideline was developed by CLSI in partnership with the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC).

Source: Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI).