Evaluation of the Quality of Some Serum Biochemical Testing Using Sigma Metrics and Quality Goal Index in Veterinary Laboratory Setting

Background: Sigma metric and quality goal index are tools for evaluating the performance of clinical laboratory measurements. In this regard, assessing the quality of biochemical testing in Ethiopia is limited, and researchers have not conducted any studies in the veterinary laboratory setting. Objectives: The objective of this study was to examine the testing quality for six analytes, namely glucose, urea, triglycerides, total cholesterol, albumin, and total protein via sigma metric and quality goal index. Results: Data from two-level quality control (normal and pathological) materials were used to calculate sigma metrics and the quality goal index. The results revealed that three analytes glucose, cholesterol, and triglyceride from normal quality control and three analytes triglyceride, total cholesterol, and albumin from pathological quality control had below the minimum acceptable performance of three sigma metric, indicating poor performances. The quality goal index indicated that the poor performances were attributed to imprecision. Conclusion: To address this, the laboratory must strictly adhere to quality management practices, including implementing a robust quality control strategy to identify and resolve the root cause of imprecision. TE _a value for respective analytes should be revisited as it might be another factor varying sigma and QGI.