Infectious Serology in Total Laboratory Automation: Fit or Unfit

TL;DR

This paper discusses the challenges and opportunities of integrating infectious serology into total laboratory automation systems.

Contribution

The paper highlights the lack of uniform standards and the unique challenges in applying quality control to infectious serology in automated labs.

Findings

Infectious serology lacks uniform international standards, complicating quality control.

Automated systems offer benefits like auto-verification and reflex testing for infectious serology.

Biological variability and host immune responses remain unresolved challenges in automation.

Abstract

Several parameters of infectious serology are increasingly being incorporated into workflows of total laboratory automation (TLA). Infectious serology is not a well-defined field, with each parameter having its own requirement for reporting. The unavailability of uniform international standards further complicates quality control (QC). Infectious serology in total laboratory automation offers opportunities like integration of laboratory services, auto-verification, re-run, and reflex add-on testing. But questionable application of standard QC procedures like Westgard rules, unavailability of international standards, biological variability of pathogens, and host immune response remain challenges that require urgent solutions.