Standards and reference preparations

Abstract

All laboratories want the results of their tests to be reproducible and comparable to the results of the same tests performed in other laboratories. Since the methods to demonstrate the antibodies mentioned in this manual are, at most, about the same but never exactly equal to each other in distinct laboratories, the need for standardization is often urgently felt as soon as a new method becomes generally used [1–9]. Often the first idea is then to standardize the method. This, however, has never appeared to be practical, since most laboratory workers are individualists [10]. But even if they would like to submit their work to rules, they would soon be confronted with the fact that such rules hamper the development of small improvements of the tests which nobody would like to miss.