The Abaxis iQC

Intelligent Quality Control and the Piccolo Point-of-Care Chemistry Analyzer

iQC: Intelligent Quality Control

Chemistry Verifies all substances participating in the reactions. Optics Insures the proper operation of the lamp and optical detectors. Electronics checks the conversion of light absorption to digital values.

Chemistry of iQC
Bar code Fluidics Beads RQC IQC Sample: Physical Interference Reaction Monitoring of Chemistries

Barcode
Eliminates the need for user calibration Test panel type Expiration Calibration factors CRC: Cyclic Redundancy Check

Fluidics
Motor profile
Determines the movement of liquid by centrifugal force and capillary action.

System Errors:
4037 Insufficient Sample 4039 Diluent Abs 403B Distribution 403E Insufficient Dil 4038 Sample to Cuv 28 403A Bead missing 403D Sample Diluent Mix etc.

iQC Beads
RQC
Reagent QC that quantifies the possible degradation of a chemistries due to improper storage (humidity and temp)

IQC
Dye beads that verify the accuracy and precision of the analyzer

RQC Beads
Cuvette 3 Reaction:
Uric acid + O2 +H2O ---Uricase-----> Allantoin + CO2 + H2O2 H2O2 + 4-AAP + DHBSA --Peroxidase--> Quinoneimine dye + H2O

Degrades to 70% of recovery when stored at 25C for 3 days. Suppresses entire rotor if recovery is less than 50% or greater than 130% of expected value. Reported on card as Chem QC for report card and Chemistry QC on Quality Control Card.

IQC Beads
Level 1: (Accuracy)
IQC 1 402e: DAC Setting Error - Dim Lamp, Partially blocked optics IQC 2 4031: Saturation Error - Too much light from the lamp IQC 3 4047: Offset SD Error - Offset = background light IQC 4 4048: Wavelength CV Error - Variability in setting DAC IQC 5 4049: Offset Level Error - Offset is too far from 0 IQC 6 404D: System Flash Range Error - during system check the cluster of flashes had too much variability. IQC 7 4051: Lamp Intensity Error - misses a flash (bad rotor or lamp) IQC 8 406B: Missing Filter Curve Factors - no filter curve calibration in instrument

Reported as a normalized value between 90 and 110%

IQC Beads
Level 2: (Precision)
Two Cuvettes (4 and 5) with dye beads Analyzer calculates the ratio of the two cuvettes to each other across all wavelengths. Averages the ratios and determines the precision of the analyzer Reports a normalized value next to Level 2. Average precision must be between 95 and 105% Reported as Inst QC on Report Card.

Sample Evaluation
Physical Interferences
Hem Ict Lip

Reports on the report card as a 0, +1, +2, +3 Calculated values on the QC card

Reaction Monitoring
Confirms for rate chemistries the reactions are linear the absorbances and rates are within defined ranges whether the substrate has been depleted Confirms for endpoint chemistries maximum acceptable absorbance is not exceeded reaction has reached completion

Optics
Monitors changes in flash intensity and adjustments for maximum dynamic range Monitors the noise associated with the lamp intensity at all wavelengths Measures the background noise to detect electrical problems Uses a reference wavelength to minimize the effect of flash-to-flash intensity variation.

Electronics
The architecture of the two microprocessors optimizes real time performance.
Real Time controller - measurements Input/Output controller - memory management and data processing

Two software programs:

Processes information / synchronizes the flashing / data collection. Reports analytes / storage of user inputs

Detects errors in absorbance data and errors in the calculations.