NOTA SÔBRE A APLICAÇÃO ANÁLISE SEQUENCIAL NA ROTINA DE LABORATÓRIO DE UMA CAMPANHA DE ERRADICAÇÃO DE MALÁRIA. AVALIAÇÃO DA CAPACIDADE DIAGNÓSTICA DE MICROSCOPISTAS

Abstract

In connection with the Malaria Erradication Campain the Central Laboratory is routinely reviewing ali positive slides and at least 10% of the negative slides prepared by each participating laboratory in each zone. lt is essential that the technicians of the Central Laboratory who will judge the readings done by the zone laboratories are readers of a really high level. Our Department was asked to develop a method for testing whether a technician measures up to a standard adopted by the Central Laboratory in making correct diagnosis and also in judging the quality of the prepared slides. Here we dealt only with the first part, i. e., the qualifications of readers for diagnosis of species of Plasmodia. The method used was the sequential for testing the null hypothesis that a particular technician is "unsatisfactory" ( the proportion of correct readings on positive side is at most 90 7r) against the alterna tive hypothesis that the technician is "satisfactory" (p > 90). After 32 realings the experience ended with the rejection of the null hypothesis, i. e., the technician was accepted as "satisfactory". Comparing these figure with the fixed size needed for a test satisfying the same criteria, namely, 207 readings, we can see that, on the average, we save on the number of readings by using the sequential plan.