Exam 16: Quality Assurance and Quality Control in the Molecular Laboratory

An unlabeled specimen arrives in the laboratory with an accompanying requisition. The requisition is properly filled out. How should you proceed?

The delivery of accurate voltage and current by an electrophoresis power supply should be checked how often?

Controls run in a capillary gel electrophoresis instrument have been consistently unacceptable. Low signal strength is evidence that the laser is not functioning properly. Which of the following is the correct course of action for the technologist in charge of this piece of equipment?

An assay that detects an analyte associated with a particular disease only in patients who have that disease and not in patients who do not have the disease has which of the following?

Which of the following controls defines the lower limit of reproducible and accurate detection of a molecular target?

The ability of a molecular-based assay to detect only the analyte and not other targets is called which of the following?

A quantitative method was performed 100 times, and results from 99 of the 100 runs were in agreement with each other. This method has 99%:

A technologist in a tissue bank who performed HLA typing by DNA analysis was asked to bank all DNA extracted from specimens received in the laboratory so as to maintain the nucleic acid for the longest period in the most limited space. How should the DNA be stored to satisfy this request?

A blood specimen is received in the laboratory for a PCR assay to detect cytomegalovirus (a DNA virus) on a Wednesday night. The PCR assay will not be performed until the next Monday morning. How should this specimen be stored to maintain the integrity of the nucleic acid prior to analysis?

The analysis of external specimens to assess technologist competency and assay performance is which kind of testing?