The dithiobisnitrobenzoic acid method for the determination of red
cell acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity, performed by means of a diagnostic ‘kit’,
has been evaluated. The experimental design known as nested design has been used
in order to determine the precision of the method and the influence that variability
outside the laboratory (including the biological variability of each subject) has on
the clinical significance of the results. It has been found that the most widely used
procedure — i.e. one blood collection, one subsample, two replicates — can be considered
satisfactory, since the AChE value obtained has a coefficient of variation of
approximately nine.