pH Meter

Purpose:
pH meters are used to access the alkalinity and / or acidity of fluids in a variety of laboratory procedures. These include:

Ensuring that aqueous reagents or buffers are prepared at the correct pH for various “in-house” tests including LCMS procedures.
Testing urine samples for adequate acidity / alkalinity prior to analysis of urinary analytes such as calcium, magnesium and urate.

To assess these general laboratory applications, aqueous EQA material with a pH covering a wide range of pH from 2 to 12 is used.

Clinical applications may also include:

Investigation of transudate or exudate: Pleural fluid pH is useful to evaluate the prognosis of effusions associated with pneumonia. Normal pleural fluid pH is 7.6.
Investigation of renal tubular acidosis: Urinary pH is used in the diagnosis of classic distal RTA. The diagnosis is made when urine pH cannot be lowered below 5.5 in the face of hyperchloraemic metabolic acidosis with abnormally low arterial pH.

To assess these clinical applications, EQA material with a narrower range of 5.0 to 7.8 is used.

Scope:
Three liquid stable samples are distributed monthly with a minimum of 36 samples distributed over the year covering a wide analytical and clinically relevant range. The samples consist of a panel of 12 samples, each distributed on 3 occasions over that period. This allows for the assessment of laboratory and method performance, including linearity, bias, within and between batch imprecision.

Key Features:

Samples are supplied ready to use; no pre-analytical preparation required.
Suitable for assessing pH Meter performance across a number of laboratory applications.
Wide range covered.
Multiple panels distributed on a number of occasions over the year.
Stable material.