
On-going Quality Control (QC) monitors the IMS process and helps resolve problems with recoveries.
- An IMS control is a 10-mL reagent water sample that is spiked with a known concentration of organisms and processed through IMS and staining to determine recoveries.
- The IMS control may be run weekly or with every 20 samples and may be used to:
- Monitor performance of new lots of IMS kits, spike organisms or staining kits.
- Troubleshoot low recoveries in On-going Precision and Recovery (OPR) and proficiency test samples.
- To help evaluate matrix effect on recoveries, an additional field sample may be processed as an IMS control by spiking organisms into the flat-sided tube.
- Track performance with IMS control charts.
- Percent recovery should be at least 70%.
- Include lot numbers, analyst names, and method modifications.

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