A re-evaluation of glycohemoglobin standardization : the Italian experience with 119 laboratories and 12 methods

The effect of calibration on glycohaemoglobin results was investigated in 119 laboratories where glycohaemoglobin (HbA1c) percentages were determined in triplicate in two samples and in two calibrators. The materials were human lyophilized haemolysates home-prepared with a novel protocol. The HbA1c content was assigned to calibrators using 4 HPLC methods with the data obtained from 11 laboratories. Intra-laboratory variation was low, although in 14 out of 119 laboratories CV values greater than 3.5% were reported. Calibration decreased inter-method variation from 16.3% to 5.6%, and from 15.3% to 4.2% for samples with low and high HbA1c content, respectively. Calibration decreased overall inter-laboratory variation from 18.7% to 7.4%, and from 17.2% to 5.4%. The calibrated results obtained with all methods, including Abbott IMx and Vision, were comparable.