1 – Program overview

This external quality assessment program evaluates the accuracy of catecholamines, methoxylated derivatives, serotonin and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid assays in blood.

Participating labs can choose to be assessed for all the analytes of this program, 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: one sample is used to assess 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA), serotonin and the catecholamines (adrenaline, noradrenaline and dopamine); another is used to assess 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).