Practical aspects of quality control for radioimmunoassays.

Mechanisms for the quality control of radioimmunoassays are described. They are useful in monitoring the possible sources of error which cause medically invalid results: errors in the radioimmunoassay system itself, in the test environment, in the instrumentation, and in the specimen quality. The application of a total control program permits early detection of malfunctions and can be used for the logical assessment of probable causes and solutions.