Cholesterol testing in the physician's office: accuracy assessment.

Abstract

Sir.—To assess the quality of cholesterol testing performed outside hospital laboratories and reference clinical laboratories, we evaluated the accuracy of cholesterol measurement in 33 pediatricians' offices in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. The participating pediatricians responded to a survey we conducted locally to determine the number of pediatricians performing cholesterol testing. Seventy-one of the 116 responding pediatricians performed cholesterol testing routinely in their practices. Sixty-five percent of those pediatricians participated in this study. Materials and Methods.—Four frozen specimens, duplicate sets of two samples with cholesterol concentrations of 4.46 and 6.55 mmol/L, were sent to every participating pediatrician. The cholesterol concentrations of the samples were unknown to the pediatricians. The cholesterol concentrations of these sets were determined using an analyzer (Kodak Ektachem 700, Eastman Kodak Co, Rochester, NY) certified by the Centers for Disease Control—Reference Method Laboratory Network for cholesterol testing. Physicians were asked to thaw and twice analyze