Statistical and Experimental Evidence in a Design of Pooled Serum Sample Measurements to Improve Research Efficiency

Abstract

Hui et al.: Efficient Analysis of Pooled Serum Samples To explore the use of an experimental design based on pooled sample measurements to improve the efficiency of research sample analysis, a total of 40 serum samples were randomly selected from healthy human subjects and an additional 40 samples were collected from intensive care unit patients. The samples were mixed to obtain 20 samples containing 2 individual serum samples per vial and 10 samples containing 4 individual serum samples per vial for both the control group and the intensive care unit group. Ten analytes were measured using an autoanalyzer, which included proteins, enzymes and organic and inorganic molecules. The results obtained from the pooled samples were statistically similar to the results obtained from individually analyzed samples. A pooled-sample experimental design could be applied in the analysis of biological samples.