Code of Federal Regulations Title 42. Public Health § 42.493.923 Syphilis serology

(1) To determine the accuracy of a laboratory's response for qualitative and quantitative syphilis tests, the program must compare the laboratory's response with the response that reflects agreement of either 80 percent of ten or more referee laboratories or 80 percent or more of all participating laboratories. The proficiency testing program must indicate the minimum concentration, by method, that will be considered as indicating a positive response. The score for a sample in syphilis serology is the average of scores determined under paragraphs (b)(2) and (b)(3) of this section.

(2) For quantitative syphilis tests, the program must determine the correct response for each method by the distance of the response from the target value. After the target value has been established for each response, the appropriateness of the response must be determined by using fixed criteria. The criterion for acceptable performance for quantitative syphilis serology tests is the target value ± 1 dilution.

(3) The criterion for acceptable performance for qualitative syphilis serology tests is reactive or nonreactive.

(4) To determine the overall testing event score, the number of correct responses must be averaged using the following formula: