Serum Indices: Reduction of

clinical errors in laboratory medicine

Going straight for the answer
 cobasT brand

The cobasT brand is the umbrella

for products used to complete or
expand the screening, diagnostic
and monitoring applications of the
professional laboratory.

2 Serum Indices: Reduction of clinical errors in laboratory medicine

Clinical errors in laboratory medicine
Going straight for the answer
Medical laboratory tests can be affected by endogenous
and exogenous constituents in the sample matrix.
The automated, objective ­determination of the interfering
substances provides benefits compared with the subjective
visual interpretation. These benefits include the
traceability, efficiency and effectiveness of the work process.

Content

Preamble – 4 Serum Indices – 16

Introduction – 5 How accurate are the ­Serum Indices? – 17

Endogenous interferences in Serum Indices – How are they done

laboratory assays – 7 on cobas c analyzers? – 17

Interference by Hemolysis – 8 Advantages of Automated

Serum Indices – 20
Mechanisms of Interference by
hemolysis – 8 Improved Result Quality and
Patient Care – 21
Interference by Icterus – 10
What does that really mean? – 23
Mechanisms of bilirubin
interference – 10 References – 24

Interference by Lipemia – 12
Mechanisms of Lipemic
interference – 12 We want to thank the following people for
their contribution and their support:
Endogenous interferences in
Prof. L. Thomas, Q. May , E. Gainska,
immunoassays – 14
C.A. Mitchell.
Identifying Clinical Errors – 14 2019 edition revised by Quentin May.

Serum Indices: Reduction of clinical errors in laboratory medicine 3

 Preamble

The aim of the clinical laboratory is to report the true value

of a concentration or activity. But the results are often
influenced by interfering factors related to the presence of
hemoglobin, bilirubin and lipemia, which may be recognized
by a colored or turbid appearance of the sample. It is
difficult to predict the effect of hemolysis, turbidity (lipemia)
and hyperbilirubinemia because each sample must be
visually examined immediately after centrifugation and the
potential interfering property recorded in the laboratory
information system.

At hemoglobin concentrations exceeding 300 mg/l

(18.8 mmol/l), hemolysis is visible to the eye by the red color
of the plasma. Hemolyzed samples are a rather frequent
occurrence in laboratory practice, with a prevalence as high
as 3.3 % and accounting for nearly 60% of rejected samples.

Lipemia is defined as turbidity in serum samples which is

visible to the naked eye. This is usually observed at
triglyceride concentrations above 300 mg/dl (3.4 mmol/l).

The visual recognition of hyperbilirubinemia is often not

sufficiently sensitive. Because of the high absorbance of
bilirubin within the range 340 to 500 nm and the high
background, the linearity range of the method can become
a limiting factor for spectrophotometric analysis at these
wavelengths.

Of the visible interferences, hemolysis most often affects

the major 20 clinical chemistry tests, closely followed by
total bilirubin and turbidity. Enzyme tests are hardly affected
at all. Certain important tests like creatinine, triglycerides,
glucose, cholesterol, phosphorus, uric acid, iron, total
protein and bilirubin may be sensitive to the interference of
hemoglobin, bilirubin and turbidity.

Serum indices represent the automated determination of

potential interferences of hemolysis, hyperbilirubinemia and
turbidity (lipemia). Roche has created a tool which makes
laboratory professionals aware of interferences, helps to
increase the quality of the sample, and minimizes aberrant
test results.

4 Serum Indices: Reduction of clinical errors in laboratory medicine

 “With the cobasT 4000, 6000 and 8000 analyzer series, the
handling of serum indices has been improved further,
thereby simplifying the cross check of data and the
identification of affected requests. The work process is
thus shorter and safer.”
Prof. Lothar Thomas, Frankfurt, Germany

Introduction

A laboratory error may be defined as “any real or

potentially negative effect on patient management.”

Laboratory reporting has a great influence on clinical

decision making. Laboratory medicine requires high
performance quality controls, ensured by regulatory
authorities and certification procedures.

All laboratories make use of statistical quality control

procedures to enhance their analytical quality.
Nonetheless, clinical laboratory quality standards and error
detection rates still fall below industrial quality standards.

Many studies (1, 2, 3) have shown that the majority of

clinical laboratory errors occur in the pre- and post-
analytical phases. However, within the analytical phase,
where the minority of errors occur (13–32 %), there may
be undetected errors due to the way in which these errors
can be identified.

Lapworth and Teal (4) reported finding in the literature an

overall error rate of approx. 0.3 %, though the authors
acknowledged that some errors may have gone unnoticed
due to the design of the study. Kalra (5) quotes reported
error rates of between 0.1–9.3 %. Many studies of error
detection rates do not include erroneous results that were
unreported due to the result fitting other clinical data.

Bonini (6) et al found error rates of 0.60 % in inpatients

and 0.039 % in outpatients

Chambers (7) reported an error rate of 0.3 % in a large

laboratory and earlier studies by McSwiney and Woodrow
(8) found an occurrence of 2.3 %.

Serum Indices: Reduction of clinical errors in laboratory medicine 5

 Goldschmidt and Lent (9) found that 12.5 % of laboratory
errors lead to an erroneous medical decision, 75 % of
erroneous results were within the reference range and 12.5 %
of the erroneous results were implausible. Plebani and
Carraro (1) found that 74 % of laboratory errors did not
influence patient outcome and 19 % resulted in increased
costs and/or further investigations. The authors also
commented that 6.4 % of laboratory errors caused
inappropriate care or inappropriate changes to therapy.

Impact on patient outcome

(Plebani and Carraro)

No influence
Further investigations
Inappropriate care

Impact on patient outcome

(Goldschmidt)

Delays
Potential damage
None
Medical intervention

6 Serum Indices: Reduction of clinical errors in laboratory medicine

Endogenous interferences in
laboratory assays

Plebani and Carraro also found that only 13.3 % of total

clinical laboratory errors were attributed to the analytical
phase. The most common errors here were due to
interference or lack of sensitivity of the analytical method.

Some aspects of the testing procedure are often outside

the laboratory’s control and are outside the bounds of
typical analytical process control. These may be differences
in biological variation, systematic errors and interfering
substances.

Kroll and Elin (10) defined interference as “the effect of a

substance present in the sample that alters the correct value
of the result”.

Medical laboratory tests can be affected by endogenous

constituents in the sample. Some of these may be recognized
by a colored appearance of the sample (hemolysis, icterus
and turbidity) but others (drugs) require more detailed
information or direct analysis. Interference in an analytical
method can produce a false result, which does not reflect
the in vivo situation.

Serum Indices: Reduction of clinical errors in laboratory medicine 7

 Interference by Hemolysis

Plasma samples with increasing degrees of hemolysis

Differences in the individual appearance is hard to distinguish from level to level;
increase of interference level in steps of 100, starting from “zero”.

Hemolysis is defined as the release of intracellular components

from erythrocytes and other blood cells into the extra
cellular fluid and can be caused by many mechanisms.

Hemolysis may be in vivo as the result of biochemical,

immunological, physical or chemical mechanisms. More
commonly hemolysis is in vitro and is usually caused
by inappropriate or incorrect sample processing. Even if
hemolysis is not visible, there may still be discharge of
cellular.contents into the serum/plasma.

A study by Carraro and Plebani (1) found that up to 3.3 % of

all specimens received by the laboratory were hemolyzed.
It is widely accepted that hemolysis can be a source of error
in many chemical analyses.

Mechanisms of Interference
by hemolysis (11, 12, 13)

Rise of intracellular constituents in the

extra-cellular space
Some cell constituents have an intra-cellular concentration
10 times higher than the extra-cellular concentration.
Hemolysis in the plasma/serum will cause an increase in
concentration of these analytes, for example, potassium,
LDH, AST.

Spectral interference
Hemoglobin absorbs light very strongly at its characteristic
wavelength of 415 nm. The effect of hemolysis on various
analytes measured in clinical chemistry has been thoroughly

8 Serum Indices: Reduction of clinical errors in laboratory medicine

investigated. The observed increase or decrease of a result
by hemoglobin has been found to be dependent on the
method and analyte concentration.

Chemical Interference
Blood cell constituents can interfere directly or indirectly in
the measurement of analytes. Adenylate kinase released
from erythrocytes may cause an increase of creatine kinase
and CK-MB activity.

Free hemoglobin with its pseudo-peroxidase activity

interferes in the bilirubin procedure of Jendrassik and Grof
by inhibiting the diazonium color formation. Proteases
released from blood cells reduce the activity of coagulation
factors and fibrin split product formation may increase.

Hemoglobin may also interfere by reacting with one or more

constituents of the reagent and the interference may differ
with different reagent sources.

Application data
via cobasT link

Serum Index
S.I. sample value:
determination of the
H-index
individual sample

Sample: Sample:
H-result: < ? > ? as H-result < as
specified limit specified limit

Individual sample Sample:

All patient samples
with Haemolysis  -result > as
H
with haemolysis
+ Haptoglobin normal specified limit

In vivo Haemolysis
(Haptoglobin: low
or 0)

“Results are disturbed in a

Request Result validated,
clinical relevant way; espc.
for new sample K, Phos, LDH, AST, NSE! report of result

Hemolytic Interference?! – Sample operation with interference check on

cobasT 6000 analyzer series; Prof. L. Thomas

Serum Indices: Reduction of clinical errors in laboratory medicine 9

 Interference by Icterus

Plasma samples with increasing degrees of icterus

Retrievable differentiation can be performed with an automated process. To
distinguish the individual appearance can potentially classify the sample in another
level; increase of interference level in steps of 6.6, starting from “zero”.

Elevated concentrations of bilirubin are another source of

endogenous interference. Such elevations can be found in a
variety of conditions including acute and chronic liver
disease, biliary cirrhosis, alcoholism or as a physiological
response to many drugs.

Mechanisms of
bilirubin interference (11, 12)

Spectral interference
Bilirubin absorbs strongly between 340 nm and 500 nm
wavelengths and the high background absorbance can lead
to absorbance readings in excess of the linearity of
spectrophotometric procedures.

In a strongly acidic solution the absorption of conjugated

bilirubin shifts to the UV wavelengths. Therefore, bilirubin
interferes in the determination of some analytes that use
these wavelengths. Under alkaline conditions bilirubin is
oxidized and loses some of its absorption properties.

10 Serum Indices: Reduction of clinical errors in laboratory medicine

Chemical interference
Bilirubin may interfere by acting as a reducing substance
because it is easily oxidized to biliverdin and bilipurpurin
with a reduction in absorbance. Assays that utilize oxidase/
peroxidase based reactions to produce hydrogen peroxide,
may produce lower results because bilirubin reacts with
the H2O2 formed in the test system. The reduction in H2O 2 is
relative to the concentration of bilirubin present. This
is true for enzymatic procedures that are used for the
measurement of glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides and uric
acid.
In albumin assays that employ dye binding, bilirubin can
competitively bind to the dye and produce lower albumin
results.

Application data No interference

via cobasT link with analyte

Serum Index
S.I. sample value:
determination of the
I-index
i ndividual sample

Does bilirubin
interfere with
analyte?

I-index below Analyte has interference

I-index above
s pecified limit – no l imit for bilirubin:
specified limit
interference occured S pecified limit is indicated

1+1 dilution of sample

w ith purified 
serum albumin (40g/L)

Result to be
Report result multiplied by 2 Report of result
report result

Icteric Interference?! – Sample operation with interference check on

cobasT 6000 analyzer series; Prof. L. Thomas

Serum Indices: Reduction of clinical errors in laboratory medicine 11

 Interference by Lipemia

Plasma samples with increasing degrees of turbidity

Any changes in the individual appearance from level to level may barely
be distinguishable; increase of interference level in steps of 200, starting from “zero”.

Lipemia is defined as turbidity in samples which is visible

to the naked eye. The most common cause of turbidity is an
increased concentration of triglycerides. Lipemic samples
cannot be avoided as increased concentration of lipids is
often secondary to other disease states such as: diabetes
mellitus, ethanol use, chronic renal failure and pancreatitis
etc.

Mechanisms of
Lipemic interference (11, 12, 14, 15)

Spectral interference
The interference caused by lipemia is fundamentally
different from the interference from hemolysis and icterus.
Lipemia interferes by scattering the light and absorbing
the transmission of light through the reaction mixture. In
lipemia there is a number of lipid components that can
scatter light to produce a milky appearance or turbidity.
The degree of light scattering depends on the number, size
and refractive index of the suspended lipid particles. As
patient serum samples are a mixture of various particle sizes,
the sample appears white because the light is scattered
at all angles.

Larger lipid entities such as chylomicrons and VLDL cause

light to be scattered to the greatest degree. Chylomicrons
constitute a diverse group of particles with varying sizes and
vary from individual to individual. VLDL particles are a
heterogeneous mixture of sizes and lipid content and the
number of VLDL particles can be increased in various
disease states.

12 Serum Indices: Reduction of clinical errors in laboratory medicine

The interference can be either positive or negative depending on the
blanking procedure of the assay. At high turbidity, no measurement may
be possible due to the limits of the linearity of the spectrophotometer.

Volume depletion effect

Lipoproteins have a “solvent displacing effect” on sampling by reducing
the available water of the sample volume. Most analytes are dissolved
in the aqueous phase of the plasma/serum. Thus, the effect is to decrease
the apparent concentration of the analyte because the volume occupied
by lipoproteins in plasma or serum is included in the calculation of the
analyte concentration. For analytes that are lipid soluble, including certain
drugs that are taken up by lipoproteins, there is an apparent increase in
concentration.

Physico-chemical effects
An analyte that is soluble in lipids may not be accessible to the reagent
for reactivity. Similarly, electrophoretic and chromatographic procedures
may be affected by lipoproteins present in the matrix.
cobasT 6000
Remote data
transfer to

analyzer

Application data
via cobasT link

Serum
S.I. sample value:
Indexdetermination of
Step in the cobasT 6000 analyzer

L-index
theindividual sample

Does lipaemia
interfere with
analyte?

Method 1 + 2 Failed -
YES: high speed centrifu-
Centrifugation gation: possible?!
> 40000g x 30min

YES (2): S/PI mix 1+1with YES (1): centrifugation

PEG 6000- Separate clear
incubate 30min at 4°C - (12000g x 10min)
supematant analyte
Pre-analytical

S/PI lipid separation

worksteps

centrifuge 1000g x 10min

Blood sampling: after

Start process
12h fasting + after 8h
from beginning
infusion of lipids
Communication
to the ward

Determination NO: 
and report of Request of new Report result
result s ample

Lipemic Interference?! – Sample operation with interference

check on cobasT 6000 analyzer series; Prof. L. Thomas

Serum Indices: Reduction of clinical errors in laboratory medicine 13

 Endogenous interferences in immunoassays

Immunoassays may be susceptible to the same endogenous

interferences as mentioned above if the measuring system
used is photometric such as for enzyme linked immunoassay
or fluorescence immunoassay.

Roche analyzers have a measuring system that employs

electro-chemiluminescence (ECL), which is less prone to
these interferences, although some immunoassays may still
have interference from unusual serum constituents.

Immunoassays employ antibodies to specific proteins and

rely on the binding of these antibodies to the antigen.
Unusual proteins in the patient sera, for example,
endogenous heterophilic antibodies such as rheumatoid
factor, anti-animal antibodies or other non-specific
antibodies may interfere in the binding process.

Hemolysis interference in immunoassays may be caused by

constituents of red blood cells being released into the
serum/plasma. These constituents may influence antibody-
antigen binding and produce lower or higher results
depending on where they interfere in the reaction.

Interference from Icterus in immunoassays is not common

because the wavelengths employed in chemiluminescent
technology are well separated from the absorbance maxima
of bilirubin.

Lipemia interference in immunoassays relates to the

solubility of the antigen to be measured in lipid and is
therefore no longer available to bind with the antibody.

Identifying Clinical Errors

It is the responsibility of the laboratory to produce precise

and accurate results and to minimize or avoid producing
results with a real or potentially significant negative effect
on a patient’s health.

14 Serum Indices: Reduction of clinical errors in laboratory medicine

 Because laboratory errors caused by interferences are
random, it is difficult to detect and prevent them from being
reported. Many errors may not necessarily produce
detectable abnormal results or raise questions for the
clinician. Errors caused by interfering substances cannot be
detected or prevented by the use of statistical QC
procedures. Such procedures can only control analytical
variations. Results released from “in-control” runs may
contain spurious results that are not detected.

In a study conducted by Glick (16) in an acute care hospital,

the frequency with which turbidity, hemolysis or icterus
was encountered in serum samples was determined. 32 % of
all samples were found to have more than trace
concentrations of an interferent. Of these, approximately
63 % were icteric, 29 % hemolyzed and 8 % lipemic.

Ryder (17) studied serum from outpatients and found that

9.7 % of specimens received contained at least one visible
interferent. Of these, 76 % were lipemic, probably due to
non-fasting, 16.5 % were hemolyzed and 5.5 % were icteric.

80

60

40
%

Frequency of
20
Endogenous Interferences

Inpatient
0 Outpatient
Lipaemia Haemolysis Icterus

Therefore, to prevent the reporting of erroneous results,

every sample should be evaluated for the possibility of
interference. The benefit is the improvement of the quality
of the service provided, as well as improvements in patient
care by reducing inaccurate results that can occur from
interferences.

Serum Indices: Reduction of clinical errors in laboratory medicine 15

 Within the manufacturing industry, Shingo (18) showed that
the random nature of errors can only be controlled with
100 % inspection, but this must be both easy and inexpensive.
He also reported that the inspection must be upstream of
the product before it causes an error, which is before the
result is released.

Hinkley (19) observed that human inspection methods failed

to detect most errors. Glick (16) found that the visual
interpretation of hemolysis, lipemia and icterus showed very
little agreement to the actual concentration of interferent.
Even when comparison samples are used, visual grading was
still problematic. He noted that because of this inconsistency,
an unbiased method is required to quantitate the level of
interference.

Serum Indices

Serum indices are calculations of absorbance

measurements that provide a semi-quantitative
representation of levels of icterus, hemolysis, or lipemia
present in unknown samples. Thus the quality of the sample
is assessed at the same time as the sample is processed.

Roche analyzers have been capable of semi-quantitative

measurement and reporting of the Serum-Indices since the
early 1980s, using 0.9 % NaCl as reagent.

The bichromatic wavelength pairs used for serum index

measurement are
480 nm and 505 nm (range 1)
570 nm and 600 nm (range 2)
660 nm and 700 nm (range 3)

Calculation formulas include corrections to compensate for

the spectral overlap.

16 Serum Indices: Reduction of clinical errors in laboratory medicine

How accurate are the Serum Indices?

Lipemia and IntralipidT

The Lipemic Index L is measured in lipemia units and is
based on the optical behaviour of the lipid substitute
Intralipid. L units are linear up to 2000 mg/dL. The Lipemic
Index provides an estimate of sample turbidity, not the
concentration of triglycerides. This is because the lipemic
Index is a measure of light scatter, which is dependent
on particle size.

Hemolysis and hemoglobin

Recovery of the Hemolysis Index correlates approximately
with the hemoglobin concentration in the patient’s sample
depending on the method used to measure Hb.

Icterus and bilirubin

Recovery of the Icteric Index correlates approximately with
the bilirubin concentration in the patient’s sample.

Serum Indices – How are they done on

cobas c analyzers?

Serum indexes are calculations of absorbance

measurements that provide a semi-quantitative
representation of levels of icterus, hemolysis or
lipemia (turbidity) present in patient samples.

A quantification of these interfering materials is possible

with the Serum Index Gen. 2 (SI2) application which can be
installed on all cobas c systems. When measuring Serum
Indices, the analyzer takes an aliquot of the patient sample,
dilutes it with 0.9 % NaCl, and then measures the
absorbances at three pairs of wavelengths:
1. For measurement of lipemia (L), wavelengths 700/660 nm
are used because this range is free from influence by
hemolysis and icterus (see figure page 18).
2. Hemolysis (H) is measured at 600/570 nm and correction
is made for absorption due to lipemia.
3. Icterus (I) is measured at 505/480 nm and correction is
made for absorption due to lipemia and hemolysis.

Serum Indices: Reduction of clinical errors in laboratory medicine 17

 Performing a Serum Index check on the cobas c analyzer is
very easy. The analyzer operator needs to perform some
simple steps:

• download Serum Index (SI2) application

• cross-link SI2 application with pre-installed H, I and

L applications

• calibrate SI2

• request SI2 together with other test requests for a serum

sample

Serum indices can be programmed in either conventional or

SI units.

Each report on laboratory findings should contain a notation

characterizing the sample’s appearance. If lipemia or a
relevant color is found, the cobas c analyzer will indicate,
in each case, the type of finding (L)-index “lipemic”, ­
(H)-index “hemolytic” and (I), index “icteric”.

The diagram shows an example absorption spectra of a

turbid serum, a hemolytic solution, and a bilirubin solution.

NADH
Lipemia
Icterus
Hemolysis
Absorbance

340 480 505 546 570 600 660 700 (nm)

Wavelength Range 1 Range 2 Range 3

18 Serum Indices: Reduction of clinical errors in laboratory medicine

Once the serum indexes are determined, cobas c analyzers
compare them with the H, I and L limits given in each
individual test application. The limits are indications below
which potential interference is considered clinically
irrelevant.

If measured values are higher than specified limits of the

individual test, the analyzer issues alarms for the measured
results. The benefit for the user: if the results are affected
by endogenous sample interference – there is no need to
manually crosscheck the Roche instructions for use for the
index level nor is an additional LIS check needed.

Serum index limits are provided as a part of the application.

Application data is downloaded electronically via the
cobasT link. Potential updates are provided on a daily basis.
No manual interaction, such as typing in application data
from an application sheet, is required. The user initiates the
download of the data from cobasT link to the analyzer.

Serum index results are very useful for monitoring the

degree of potential interference due to lipemia (turbidity),
hemolysis and icterus (bilirubin) and therefore

• improves the quality of reported results: 100 % of samples

are checked

• in almost no time: One simple pipetting step in the

analytical phase replaces both the visual check in
the pre-analytical phase and the retrieval of suspicious
samples in the post-analytical phase

• with minimal cost: only the use of a simple NaCl solution

compared to manually intensive tasks in the pre and
post-analytic phases

• improved handling of pediatric samples: enabling efficient

and reliable handling of very small sample volumes

Serum Indices: Reduction of clinical errors in laboratory medicine 19

 Advantages of Automated Serum Indices

Advances in technology allow Roche to incorporate an

automated feature into their analytical instruments to verify
the quality of the specimen at the same time as the result
is produced.

Up to now, medical laboratories have taken a “judgment

inspection” approach to endogenous interferences; the
operator decides whether the sample is appropriate or not.
If an abnormal result is obtained, the sample is inspected
for visible interferences. Thus judgment inspections can only
detect errors after they have been made and identified.

Decreased Turnaround Time (TAT)

Manual inspection may be performed on every specimen
before analysis (pre-analytical) or inspecting specimens that
produce “suspect” results (post-analytical). This is very
time consuming and produces very inconsistent results. In
addition, a falsely “normal” result may go undetected.

When Serum Indices are generated by the analyzer,

consistent evaluations are made and remove the potential
for human error and save operator time.

Turn Around Time

(A) Manual Sample Inspection in Pre/Post-Analytical Phase

Sample inspection Sample inspection

of dubious samples of dubious results

Pre-analytical Phase Analytical Phase Post analytical Phase

(B) Serum Index incorporated into Analytical Phase

Automatic inspection
of ALL samples

Pre-analytical Analytical Phase Post analytical

Phase Phase

(B) a slight increase in analytical time but a large decrease in

pre- and/or post-analytical time = reduced overall TAT

20 Serum Indices: Reduction of clinical errors in laboratory medicine

 Decreased Costs
With less operator time involved in examining suspicious samples, not
only is the TAT decreased, but also the costs involved in repeating “out of
limit” results due to interferences. The serum index result reported
simultaneously with the test result enables the operator to acknowledge
the presence of interfering substances as the potential cause of the
abnormal result. This removes the need to rerun the sample, thus reducing
costs.

Improved Result Quality and Patient Care

In 2005, Vermeer (20) reported on improvements in patient results with

respect to endogenous interferences with the introduction of an
automated detection and reporting system. The laboratory information
system (LIS) used a rule-based algorithm to assess the effect of
interference on each analyte measured.

Test-specific serum index decision thresholds were used to:

• Detect interference

• Alert the operator

• Add appropriate comments

• Reject a result where necessary

Add
comment

Result

Release
Sample LIS* result

H index
L index
I index
Alert
Operator

Serum Indices: Reduction of clinical errors in laboratory medicine 21

 The laboratory found that by introducing the rule-based
system, the detection rate of clinically significant hemolysis
increased approximately 70 fold, icterus 10 fold and lipemia
over 1000 fold.

Glick (22, 23) interferographs are produced for all Roche

clinical chemistry assays. This is an easily understandable
graphical display of the interference data showing the
deviation from the original result caused by the interferent.
The level of interference producing a clinically significant
difference is indicated in the Roche instructions for use.

Effect of Serum Index and LIS

10’000

1000
Sample number

100

10

1
Manual inspection Automated SI LIS Processing

Hemolysis   Icterus   Lipemia

22 Serum Indices: Reduction of clinical errors in laboratory medicine

What does this really mean?

Of all the samples received by the laboratory, as many as

22 % may be influenced by endogenous interferences.
The chance of identifying a possible visible interferent is
greatly decreased when primary tubes are covered with
several labels which prevent the clear inspection of the
sample.

A serum index result generated simultaneously with the

sample result ensures that all samples are correctly
identified.

Reporting results that acknowledge the effect of interferences

improves the clinical usefulness of the result. This allows
better clinical decisions and better patient care.

The FDA and IVD directives oblige manufacturers of

instruments and analytical methods to provide details of
the degree of interference for each assay. Roche conducts
the interference studies according to the guidelines of
the NCCLS (EP7-P).

110 %
!
Recovery of known material

H > 700
Increasing
100 % H index value

90 %
Glick interferograph

Serum Indices: Reduction of clinical errors in laboratory medicine 23

 References

[1] Plebani M, Carraro P. [6] Bonini P, Plebani M, Ceriotti F,

Mistakes in a stat laboratory: Rubboli F. Errors in Laboratory
types and frequency. Medicine.
Clin Chem 1997; 43: Clin Chem 2002; 48: 6­ 91–698
1348–1351
[7] Chambers AM, Elder J,
[2] Ross J, Boone D. O’Reilly D.
Assessing the effect of The blunder-rate in a clinical
mistakes in the total testing biochemistry service.
process on the quality of Ann Clin Biochem 1986; 23:
patient care (Abstract 102) 470–473
In: Martin L, Wagner W,
Essien JDK, eds 1989 Institute [8] McSwiney RR, Woodrow DA.
of Critical Issues in Health Types of error within a clinical
Laboratory Practice. laboratory.
Minneapolis, MN: DuPont J Med Lab Technol 1969; 26:
Press, 1991 340–346

[3] Boone J, Steindel SD, Herron [9] Goldschmidt HMJ, Lent RW.
R, Howanitz PJ, Bachner P, Gross errors and work
Meier F, Schifman RB, Zarbo flow analysis in the clinical
RJ. laboratory.
Transfusion medicine Klin Biochem Metab 1995; 3:
monitoring practices. 131–140
Arch Pathol Lab Med 1995;
119: 999–1006 [10] Kroll M, Elin, R. Interference
with Clinical laboratory
[4] Lapworth R, Teal TK. Analyzes
Laboratory blunders revisited. Clin Chem 1994; 40:
Ann Clin Biochem 1994; 31: 1996–2005
78–84
[11] Guder W, da Fonseca-
[5] Kalra J. Medical errors: Wollheim F, Heil W, Schmitt
impact on clinical laboratories Y, Toepfer G, Goerlitz H,
and other critical areas. Zawta B. The Hemolytic,
Review Clin Biochem 2004; Icteric and Lipemic Sample
37: 1052–1062 Recommendations Regarding
their Recognition and
Prevention of Clinically
Relevant Interferences.
J Lab Med 2000; 24: 357–364

24 Serum Indices: Reduction of clinical errors in laboratory medicine

[12] Grafmeyer D, Bondon M, Manchon [19] Hinckley C. Defining the best
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 Notes

26 Serum Indices: Reduction of clinical errors in laboratory medicine

Serum Indices: Reduction of clinical errors in laboratory medicine 27
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