Cooperative interlaboratory surveys of the determination of cadmium in whole blood

Abstract

The Subcommittee on Cadmium of the IUPAC Clinical Chemistry Division's Commission of Toxicology performed two cooperative interlaboratory surveys from 1979 to 1981 for the determination of cadmium in whole blood. The goal was to study the suitability of a possible standardized method. This paper presents the results of two pilot studies and the two surveys for cadmium in blood. The first survey (1979 to 1980) involved 21 participants from 10 countries; the second (1981) 30 participants from 14 countries. Significant improvements in the ability to analyze endogenous concentrations of cadmium in blood occurred in the 14 laboratories which participated in both surveys. However, most participants experienced difficulty in analyzing concentrations higher than 15 μg/l. It was concluded the suggested standardized method gives a better precision and fewer outliers if compared with other methods.