Estimating the intra- and inter-individual imprecision of manual pipetting.
Clin Chem Lab Med
; 55(7): 962-966, 2017 Jun 27.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-27816957
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Despite the importance of manual pipetting of fluids such as water, solutions, buffers, reagents, or biological samples in daily laboratory practice, the intra- and inter-individual imprecision of this activity has not been recently described in scientific publications.METHODS:
Twenty laboratory operators were randomly enrolled for this study. Imprecision of manual pipetting was estimated by asking each laboratory professional to dispense 1 mL, 100 µL or 10 µL of distilled water for 10 consecutive times with three certified pipettes into a 50-mL plastic container placed into a gravimetric balance. The weight of the water dispensed was systematically recorded for each of the 10 repeated attempts, and the inter- and intra-operator imprecision was finally calculated and expressed as coefficient of variation (CV%).RESULTS:
The mean intra-individual imprecision was 5.7% (range, 0%-11.8%) for pipetting 10 µL, 0.8% (range, 0.4%-1.9%) for pipetting 100 µL, and 0.2% (range, 0.1%-0.5%) for pipetting 1 mL. Overall, the mean inter-individual imprecision was 8.1% for pipetting 10 µL, 1.1% for pipetting 100 µL and 0.4% for pipetting 1 mL. A significantly inverse correlation was found between intra-individual pipetting imprecision and the amount of water dispensed (r = -0.80; p<0.001). No significant correlation was observed between individual pipetting performance and sex, age, qualification, and years of experience in the laboratory.CONCLUSIONS:
The results of this study show that manual pipetting is plagued by a considerable intra- and inter-individual imprecision, which is inversely correlated with the amount of fluid dispensed.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Técnicas de Laboratório Clínico
Tipo de estudo:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Guideline
Limite:
Adult
/
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Clin Chem Lab Med
Assunto da revista:
QUIMICA CLINICA
/
TECNICAS E PROCEDIMENTOS DE LABORATORIO
Ano de publicação:
2017
Tipo de documento:
Article