Figure 1

Heat maps of CAP proficiency testing results for amino acid challenges from 2004-B through 2014-B. (a) Heat map for amino acid proficiency testing for 50 international participants. (b) Heat map for amino acid proficiency testing for 109 US participants. Each row represents results from a single laboratory while each column represents a specific response. Each pair of columns depicts grading results for the analytic (A) and interpretive (I) component of the challenge (e.g., columns 1 and 2 show analytic and interpretive performance for the B distribution in 2004). Gray boxes indicate correct responses; black boxes, incorrect responses; white boxes, no response (or no participation). For clinical interpretations (I), a white X indicates that the incorrect interpretation was “Normal, unaffected” (i.e., false-negative result); while a solid black box indicates that an abnormality was recognized but was incorrect. The two solid gray columns indicate an ungraded sample (see text).