Version history QBase (PDF)

To provide transparency for participants regarding SKML’s tolerance limits, we have tabulated them for all tests across all proficiency testing rounds.

The MUSE manuals explain how these tolerance limits are used to translate your performance into sigma values and ultimately into a score. For each analyte, we specify both the Total Error Allowable (TEa) tolerance range and the State of the Art (SA) tolerance range. We also indicate the rationale for the TEa. This can be: clinical decision limits, biological variation, or defined by legislation. How state of the art field is defined is described in the MUSE manual

For both TEa and SA the tolerance levels are presented at the evaluation level (the centre of a typical reference interval). This is expressed in percent and in absolute units. As can be seen in the accompanying difference plot the TEa tolerance level reflects the width of the green area at the evaluation level and the blue area reflects the width of SA tolerance level at evaluation level.

TEa and SA at other concentration levels cannot be tabulated, as they depend on the shape of the tolerance ranges, which is determined by the SA precision profile as described in the MUSE manual. You can sort the table according to any column based on your preferences. The default sorting is alphabetical on analyte by scheme.