Journal Information
Journal ID (publisher-id): BM
Journal ID (nlm-ta): Biochem Med (Zagreb)
Title: Biochemia Medica
Abbreviated Title: Biochem. Med. (Zagreb)
ISSN (print): 1330-0962
ISSN (electronic): 1846-7482
Publisher: Croatian Society of Medical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine
Article Information
Copyright statement: ©Croatian Society of Medical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine.
Copyright: 2020, Croatian Society of Medical Biochemistry
License (open-access):
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Date received: 23 October 2019
Date accepted: 31 December 2019
Publication date (print and electronic): 15 February 2020
Volume: 30
Issue: 1
Electronic Location Identifier: 010101
Publisher ID: bm-30-1-010101
DOI: 10.11613/BM.2020.010101
Statistical distributions commonly used in measurement uncertainty in laboratory medicine
Uncertainty is an inseparable part of all types of measurement. Recently, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) released a new standard (ISO 20914) on how to calculate measurement uncertainty (MU) in laboratory medicine. This standard can be regarded as the beginning of a new era in laboratory medicine. Measurement uncertainty comprises various components and is used to calculate the total uncertainty. All components must be expressed in standard deviation (SD) and then combined. However, the characteristics of these components are not the same; some are expressed as SD, while others are expressed as a ± b, such as the purity of the reagents. All non-SD variables must be transformed into SD, which requires a detailed knowledge of common statistical distributions used in the calculation of MU. Here, the main statistical distributions used in MU calculation are briefly summarized.
Keywords: measurement uncertainty; normal distribution; triangular distribution; uniform distribution
