Another Reference Measurement Procedure for Total Testosterone—What's the Fuss?

Abstract

In this issue of Clinical Chemistry , Botelho et al. present another candidate reference measurement procedure (RMP) for total testosterone in human serum (1). As the authors acknowledge, there are already 3 approved RMPs for testosterone in the literature (2–4). An RMP is a procedure that has, among other important requirements, negligible inaccuracy (a negligibly small deviation from the true value) compared with its reproducibility. The precise requisites for an RMP are set out by ISO15193 (International Organization for Standardization) (5), and candidate RMPs must be certified and approved by the Joint Committee for Traceability in Laboratory Medicine. RMPs are generally difficult to accomplish, time-consuming, and expensive; they are not intended for adoption by all laboratories conducting a test for a given measurand but rather are a standard against which other less complex, less expensive, and less time-consuming methods may be judged. The burden for developing an RMP is heavy—justifiably so. Nevertheless, for serum samples from both sexes, all of the stringent requirements set …