ePoster Exhibition
The ePoster exhibition during Labquality Days is a great opportunity to showcase projects and research results in laboratory medicine, personalized medicine, or quality management. The 2025 ePosters are presented on this page.
Congratulations to Rosie Forster for receiving the best ePoster award and to Milla Mikkola for her poster being voted the audience's favourite!
ePoster exhibition – share your research results!
The ePoster exhibition arranged during Labquality Days is a great opportunity to showcase projects and research results in laboratory medicine, personalized medicine or quality management.
Interference in Oestradiol assays from Hormone Therapies used in Breast Cancer Treatment
Rosie Forster1, Finlay MacKenzie1, Megan Dolan2, Alice Stephenson2, James Hawley2, Rachel Marrington1
1. Birmingham Quality (UK NEQAS), University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust; Birmingham, UK
2. Clinical Biochemistry, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust; Manchester, UK
Fulvestrant, an estrogen receptor antagonist, and Exemestane, an aromatase inhibitor, are two hormonal therapies used to treat estrogen receptor positive breast cancers. Most manufacturers of immunoassay methods for estradiol measurement state in the accompanying literature that Fulvestrant interferes with measurement of estradiol; some do also state that aromatase inhibitors may interfere. Most laboratories measuring estradiol do so by immunoassay, and in a general, adult hospital providing cancer care, laboratories are highly likely to analyze samples in patients on such hormonal cancer therapies.
Artificial intelligence determined reference value (rAIght value) included in virtual histopathology EQA scheme: comparison of participating pathologists and a trained image analysis algorithm
Jonna Pelanti1, Pia Eloranta1, Juuso Juhila2, Anniina Wester2, Marita Laurila3, Heidi Berghäll1
1. Aurevia; Helsinki, Finland
2. Aiforia Technologies; Helsinki Finland (*at the time of this research project)
3. Department of Pathology, Fimlab Laboratories; Tampere, Finland
Correct identification of prostate cancer is important to help patients correctly and on time. Prostate cancer samples are evaluated with the Gleason score. The most common and most aggressive grades are added together, resulting in an overall Gleason score for the sample. The overall Gleason score determines the Grade Group (GG) from 1 to 5, where 5 is the most aggressive. Labquality organizes a virtual histopathology external quality assessment (EQA) scheme twice a year. In round 2-2023, the topic was prostate cancer and participants were given 7 whole specimen scanned slide for analysis.
Assessment of Stability of Activated Partial Thromboplastin Time, D-Dimer, Fibrinogen, and Thrombin Time Under Different Storage Conditions in Human Plasma
Dr. Martins Birze, Dr. Sandra Selkova, Dr. Janis Stasulans
E. Gulbja Laboratory; Riga, Latvia
Various pre-analytical factors can affect the accuracy of coagulation test results. These factors include the sampling technique, order of draw, anticoagulant type and concentration, hematocrit levels, tube filling, transportation, centrifugation, temperature, the time between collection and testing, as well as storage and assay methods. We took a closer look at the effects of storage time and temperature on commonly performed coagulation tests.
Complementarity of dual ISO 15189 and CAP lab accreditation in Europe: Insights from a Belgian clinical laboratory
Kenny Dauwe, Naomi Vierstraete, Stéphanie Pieters, Alain G. Verstraete
Cerba HealthCare Belgium; Ghent, Belgium
Accreditation is essential for ensuring high-quality services in laboratories. ISO15189 and the College of American Pathologists (CAP) accreditation are two prominent frameworks that laboratories adopt to enhance their quality management systems. While ISO15189 focuses on the overall high-level quality of medical laboratories, CAP emphasizes detailed, practice-oriented quality assurance and proficiency testing. Traditionally, the focus in Europe is mainly on ISO with CAP not being as well established.
Development and Evaluation of Drug Testing in Urine Using LC-MS/MS in a Clinical Laboratory
Aram Kim, Eunha Oh, Iksu Kang, Kiryang Hwangbo, Dongheui An, Yoo Sung Hwang
Seegene Medical Foundation; Seoul, South Korea
The rising prevalence of drug use in South Korea has led to an increased demand for accurate and efficient drug testing in clinical and forensic laboratories. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) has become a gold standard for drug testing due to its high sensitivity, specificity, and ability to detect a wide range of substances. This study focuses on the development and evaluation of an LC-MS/MS-based method using Waters Acquity UPLC and Xevo TQ-XS systems, alongside Chromsystems' MassChrom® Drugs of Abuse Testing in Urine reagent kit, to ensure reliable detection of 21 commonly abused substances. The method’s clinical utility in routine testing was evaluated through comprehensive performance assessments.
Fecal elastase 1 stability and assay comparison
Jenny Kiviaho, Mikko Anttonen, Outi Itkonen
HUS Diagnostic Center; Lappeenranta, Finland
Quantitation of fecal elastase 1 (FE-1) can be used as a non-invasive test for pancreatic function to detect moderate or severe exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) are well-established tests for FE-1 detection. Traditional sample preparation by manual weighing and extraction is laborious, but new sampling devices allow more effective sample preparation. FE-1 in stool has good stability but systematic studies on FE-1 stability in sampling devices are lacking.
Educational preanalytical cases support end-to-end EQA in bacteriology laboratories
Elina Tuovinen, Kristel Virtanen, Yvonne Björkman, Jonna Pelanti, Heidi Berghäll
Aurevia; Helsinki, Finland
Aurevia's external quality assessment (EQA) service has since 2017 included educational pre- and post-analytical cases in addition to the traditional sample distributions. This service named integrated EQA (EQA3), supports the clinical laboratories and point-of-care testing (POCT) sites in meeting the requirements of ISO 15189 standard stating that all steps of the laboratory process should be monitored. According to the results of a survey conducted in 2023, the participants of Aurevia's schemes for General bacteriology and Urine culture find the EQA3 service suitable for their needs.
Health economic impact model of a digital health solution
Milla Mikkola1, Amalia Ruiz Serrano2, Philipp Gretscher3, Luis Riba3
1. Roche Diagnostics Oy; Finland
2. Roche, Roche Diagnostics; Rotkreuz, Switzerland
3. Syte Institute; Hamburg, Germany
Cervical cancer is a significant global health concern, with substantial social and economic costs. The WHO's Cervical Cancer Elimination Initiative aims to eradicate the disease, promoting digital solutions for improved access, efficiency, and adherence to guidelines. (1) Healthcare provider (HCP) adherence to guidelines can improve patient outcomes and reduce the economic burden on healthcare systems. (2) The economic burden is estimated at $682 billion from 2020-2050. (3) A health economic impact model assesses the benefits of a digital health solution. This digital health solution is designed to guide HCPs on local and standardized screening guidelines, offering a customized and centralized view of all patients under care, categorizes patients by next recommended action, and flags actions to prioritize tasks.
New EQA Scheme for Improving Pipetting Quality
Riitta Viertola1, Kristel Virtanen1, Solveig Mo2, Marit Sverresdotter Sylte2, Jonna Pelanti1, Heidi Berghäll1
1. Aurevia; Helsinki, Finland
2. Department of Medical Biochemistry and Pharmacology, Haukeland University Hospital; Bergen, Norway
Aurevia has developed a new EQA scheme for pipette control. According to ISO 15189:2022, laboratories shall specify calibration and traceability requirements sufficient to maintain consistent reporting of analysis results. Pipette calibration can be performed by ISO 17025-accredited calibration facilities or internally by the clinical laboratories when following the standardized procedure. The new EQA scheme supports laboratories in performing intermediate performance checks between pipette calibration intervals.
New quality indicator scheme for the laboratory process in pathology
Josefin Ågren1, Pia Gabrielsson2, Emilia Andersson3, Åsa Hyltskog2, Anders Askerlund4, Karin Fonnaland5
1. Equalis; Uppsala, Sweden
2. Sahlgrenska University Hospital; Borås, Sweden
3. Roche Diagnostics; Solna, Sweden
4. Halland Hospital; Halmstad, Sweden
5. Central Hospital; Karlstad, Sweden
Equalis provides over 100 external quality assessment (EQA) schemes and has offered EQA within pathology since 1998. As a complement to traditional EQA schemes, Equalis offer quality indicator schemes. In these schemes, laboratories report their results from the previous production year, allowing them to compare their performance with other laboratories in Sweden and identify potential diagnostic issues. In 2023, in collaboration with the KVAST (quality and standardization committee) group for the laboratory and preanalytical process, Equalis launched a pilot round for a quality indicator scheme within the laboratory and preanalytical process, which then became an annual EQA scheme in 2024.
Towards value-based laboratory medicine: How to improve our EQAs? The example of the NIPT EQA in Belgium
Joséphine Lantoine
Sciensano; Brussels, Belgium
In 2017 the Belgian government adopted a law allowing all pregnant women to perform a NIPT test from 12th week of pregnancy to detect fetal risk of trisomy 21. Performing an NIPT test was then no longer the matter of genetic centers but a routine test performed in medical laboratories. To offer to patient analyses and care of quality, medical laboratories must be licensed by the Belgian Institute for Health, Sciensano to perform molecular biology analyses as NIPT, and as the genetic centers, they must be accredited according to ISO15189.