Processing Result Sets- difference between Quantitate only and Calibrate and Quantitate

I looked at Waters help for this but couldn't get a complete set of instructions.


If I manually altered the peak area of two of my standards in a result set then File>Save Result and exited, when I process this result set again does "Use Existing Integration" mean the updated peak area I just manually changed or does it go by the processing method integration set when it became a result set?

Also, if I wanted to process this result set to see what my amounts would be like using the altered peak areas do I select quantitate only? I presume if I picked calibrate and quantitate then the result set would be processed using the calibration parameters set in the processing method of the method set used to acquired the samples and that wouldn't give me what I wanted.

Whereas if I selected Quantitate only, would all my unknowns now be quantitated using the updated standard areas? 

Best Answer

  • If I manually altered the peak area of two of my standards....

    The standards will be processed and sample re-calculated using the manual alterations if you choose "Calibrate and Quantitate". Auto integration will be used for remaining standards and samples that did not have manual changes. Typically a new result set will be created.

    Also, if I wanted to process this result set to see what my amounts would be like using the altered peak areas do I select quantitate only?

    Quantitate Only will result in the following: Reprocessing of unknowns. Standard changes will not be made to the calbration curve and typically and new result set will not be created.


    Whereas if I selected Quantitate only, would all my unknowns now be quantitated using the updated standard areas?

    Not necessarily. Quantitate Only will not update standards or the related calibration curves. 


    Overall, there are a few "dirty" ways of doing things you are attempting to accomplish. 

     The cleanest way to accomplish your goal is to do the following: Process a best-effort result set focusing on the Standard integration. Open the Result set in review: apply all manual integration changes needed and save each result. Re-process the Result Set and choose Use Manual integration, and choose Calibrate and Quantitate.

Answers

  • I would avoid making manual adjustments to stds. Period. Reprocessing the result set with “Use manual integration” is the only mechanism to leverage manual integration on stds. There may be exceptional methods where manually intgrating stds is need (Biologics molecules etc) but these are likely to be exception.