Korean J Intern Med.  2018 Nov;33(6):1119-1128. 10.3904/kjim.2017.034.

Harmonization of laboratory results by data adjustment in multicenter clinical trials

• Lee SG
• Chung HJ
• Park JB
• Park H
• Lee EH

• KMID: 2426396
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3904/kjim.2017.034

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS
In multicenter clinical trials, laboratory tests are performed in the laboratory of each center, mostly using different measuring methodologies. The purpose of this study was to evaluate coefficients of variation (CVs) of laboratory results produced by various measuring methods and to determine whether mathematical data adjustment could achieve harmonization between the methods.
METHODS
We chose 10 clinical laboratories, including Green Cross Laboratories (GC Labs), the central laboratory, for the measurement of total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), serum triglycerides, creatinine, and glucose. The serum panels made with patient samples referred to GC Labs were sent to the other laboratories. Twenty serum samples for each analyte were prepared, sent frozen, and analyzed by each participating laboratory.
RESULTS
All methods used by participating laboratories for the six analytes had traceability by reference materials and methods. When the results from the nine laboratories were compared with those from GC Labs, the mean CVs for total cholesterol, HDL-C, LDL-C, and glucose analyzed using the same method were 1.7%, 3.7%, 4.3%, and 1.7%, respectively; and those for triglycerides and creatinine analyzed using two different methods were 4.5% and 4.48%, respectively. After adjusting data using Deming regression, the mean CV were 0.7%, 1.4%, 1.8%, 1.4%, 1.6%, and 0.8% for total cholesterol, HDL-C, LDL-C, triglyceride, creatinine, and glucose, respectively.
CONCLUSIONS
We found that more comparable results can be produced by laboratory data harmonization using commutable samples. Therefore, harmonization efforts should be undertaken in multicenter trials for accurate data analysis (CRIS number; KCT0001235).

Keyword

Multicenter clinical trial; Harmonization; Comparable data; Traceability

MeSH Terms

Cholesterol
Cholesterol, HDL
Cholesterol, LDL
Creatinine
Glucose
Humans
Methods
Multicenter Studies as Topic
Research Design*
Statistics as Topic
Triglycerides
Cholesterol
Cholesterol, HDL
Cholesterol, LDL
Creatinine
Glucose
Triglycerides