News from the EFI Committee for External Proficiency Testing
The present EPT Standards for Laboratories (Version 7.0) claiming ten samples as the minimum number of EPT samples for every HLA typing method led to inconsistent interpretation: Some laboratories used ten samples for every technique (SSP, SSO, etc.), but others used only ten samples for every category (e.g. low resolution typing) and therefore split the samples (e.g. five for SSP low. res. and five for SSO low. res. if both assays were established in the lab). In addition, the minimum numbers of EPT samples for supplemental typing techniques, for example only applied for resolving ambiguities after SBT, were not clearly defined in the present EPT Standards.