1 – Program overview

This external quality assessment program is designed for the quantitative assessment of reticulocytes in stabilised blood at pathological values, with an interlaboratory comparison by peer group.

2 – Assessment frequency

Number of surveys per year: 2
Number of control samples per survey: 2
Number of samples per year: 4

3 – List of analytes assessed 

• Reticulocytes (% and G/L)
• New - RBC (impedance and optical)

4 – Description of the control samples

Liquid human and animal stabilised control blood samples (ready-to-use 3 mL samples).

5 – Information

Optional program conditional on MANDATORY registration for the NUM program (EQA - Blood count (stabilised blood))

For full reticulocyte count assessment, it is strongly advised to combine the NFR EQA program (CBC and reticulocytes in fresh blood) with normal values and the RETI EQA program (reticulocytes (stabilised blood)) with pathological values.