1 - Programme Overview

This EQA programme is intended for laboratories performing assays of catecholamines, methoxylated derivatives, serotonin, and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid in blood.

Participating labs can choose to be assessed for all the analytes of this programme, or simply a subset of analytes of interest.

2 - Assessment Frequency

Number of surveys per year: 4
Number of control samples per survey: 1 or 2
Number of samples per year: 6

CAUTION: a sample allows to control the Catecholamines (adrenaline, noradrenaline, serotonin and dopamine) and another sample allows to control the methoxylated derivatives (metanephrine, Normetanephrine and 3-methoxytyramine).

3 - List of Analytes Assessed 

• 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA)
• Adrenaline (epinephrine)
• Noradrenaline (norepinephrine)
• Dopamine
• Serotonin
• Total metanephrine
• Total normetanephrine
• Total 3-methoxytyramine
• Free metanephrine
• Free normetanephrine
• Free 3-methoxytyramine

4 - Description of the Control Samples

Lyophilised human control plasma and serum (samples to be resuspended in 3 or 5 mL of distilled water).