Blood lead misclassification due to defective LeadCare blood lead testing equipment.

摘要

To the Editor: In May, 2005, a partial recall of Lead-Care~R portable blood lead testing kits was initiated after proficiency testing revealed a negative error (mean, -25%; 95% CI, -15% to -35%) in blood lead concentrations (often called blood lead level in the US) analyzed with this device (1,2). This bias exceeded previously recommended 95% error thresholds established with graphite furnace atomic absorption spectroscopy (3). The recall included 8 lots of defective sensors containing enough material for an estimated 500 000 patient tests distributed between September 2003 and May 2005.