Can you use your own labels for calibration and quantitation?

I know Empower assigns labels for standards, samples and controls in a sample set as per S0101, C0101 and U0101 etc but for a bracket of 4 samples and 2 standards can I just call the standards S1 and S2 then the unknowns U1, U2, U3 and U4, so when it comes to quantitation, its just a case of Clear Calibration, Calibrate with the Label S* and Quantitate with the Label U*? 

Rather then using two long labels for each standard S0101 and S0201 and U0101 etc. Surely even if I called each standard John and each sample Mary1, Mary2 etc and calibrated with John and Quantitated with Mary* that would work, as long as you clear the calibration lines?

Best Answer

  • shaunwat
    Answer ✓

    Yes, you are allowed to use what ever label you want for samples and standards. The sky is truly the limit with this one!

    The calibrate and clear calibration functions work exactly as you are describing. A few companies that I have done work for quantitate on bracketing standards, so they have a lot of clear calibration and quantitate with specific labels in their sample set methods.

Answers

  • Also, sometimes there is a benefit to using the same label for some sample groups (AV calculation tricks).
  • We do bracketing standards several times during the sample set in our company and I never understood the need for sticking with the default suggested labels of S0101 and U0101 etc when a simple S1 and U1 U2 will do since the Clear Calibration function automatically clears the points on the previous calibration curves so only the labels after that are considered. 

    Incidentally, do you even need the suffix 1,2 etc? Say I run 100 samples as per:
    Clear Calibration

    Standard - S
    Unknown 1- U
    Unknown 2-U

    …...Unknown 100- U
    Standard- S
    Calibrate - S
    Quantitate - U. 

    Would that automatically include ALL samples and standards with the same label (ie include BOTH standards with Label S and ALL unknowns with Label U) or would you have to throw in a wildcard like S* and U*?
  • Having predictable labels makes reporting the data TONs easier.
    It's flexible, so all really depends on what you're trying to accomplish, but if you go way off the rails, nobody else will have an easy time of following behind you.