Immunodiagnostics and Patient Safety

New Series: Patient Safety Medical errors do not only occur in the laboratory, but pose a direct threat to patient safety. The clinical laboratory is an integral part of care, and the results of analytics are an essential component of informed decision-making for clinicians. Efforts to avoid laboratory errors, especially minimizing pre- and postanalytical errors, are in the responsibility of laboratory professionals.The new handbook series with the international known editors Oswald Sonntag and Mario Plebani fills a vacancy in the relevant and promising area of patient safety and quality assurance.

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Today most of immunochemistry methods for the determination of proteins, peptides, drugs, and many small molecules are fully automated, with good precision, excellent sensitivity and short reaction time. However, inaccuracy due to poor standardization and the presence of interfering substances in biological samples is still a serious and life-threatening issue. Proper validation of methods and quality assurance have little effect on frequency of occurrence of false positive or false negative results, which, if unrecognized, may lead to patient's misdiagnosis, unnecessary treatment or even unnecessary surgery. Deep knowledge of basic principles of immunochemical methods (antigen-antibody reaction, standardization, matrix effect, limit of detection, cross-reactivity, etc.), sources of analyte-independent interferences (preanalitycal errors, the presence of binding proteins, the presence of autoantibodies) and analyte-dependent interferences (presence of heterophilic antibodies, high-dose effect) are very important to understand, detect, reduce and/or eliminate the interferences. This book helps to reduce false results and, at the same time, improve patient's care and patient's safety.