Comparison of Humancomma; Bovinecomma; and Newborn Calf Serum in the Preparation of External Quality Assurance Samples for Therapeutic Drugs

摘要

The accuracy and precision of drug measurements made by different analytical techniques of a range of eight antiepileptic drugs, four tricyclic antidepressants, theophylline, and digoxin in three different matrices, human, bovine, and newborn calf serum, were compared using data reported to the Heathcontrol External Quality Assurance Scheme over 18 months. Neither of the animal serum samples was universally satisfactory compared with human serum. The newborn calf serum sample produced results that were closer to the spiked drug concentrations than those in bovine serum for most of the analytes covered by the survey. Both animal samples were unsuitable for digoxin, for which the use of scarce human material is recommended.