International Consensus: Paraneoplastic Neurological Antibodies - are we there yet?

Laboratory contribution to clinical diagnosis is an essential part of patient care. In order to accurately diagnose, treat and advise patients, physicians rely on timely laboratory data that remains consistent regardless of its origin and most will take the quality (accuracy, reproducibility, clinical relevance) of the result for granted. Most physicians rightly assume that quality is assured as a routine part of the work of the laboratory and would not expect that different versions of tests would produce different results on the same sample, or that exactly the same test on the same sample might produce different results in different places.

Laboratories and their suppliers strive to achieve this by monitoring and standardizing test methodologies with the aid of robust internal and external quality control. Where standardization (same result in same units on the same sample, everywhere) is not possible, we aim for harmonization of reporting outcomes(all positive and negative results match, irrespective of units). Despite such an ethos, laboratory results on the same patient sample can vary due to rapid development in the diagnostic service or methodology, or the pressures of increasing workload.