The Use and Abuse of Limits of Detection in Environmental Analytical Chemistry
The limit of detection (LoD) serves as an important method performance measure that is useful for the comparison of measurement techniques and the assessment of likely signal to noise performance, especially in environmental analytical chemistry. However, the LoD is only truly related to the precisi...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2008-01-01
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| Series: | The Scientific World Journal |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1100/tsw.2008.107 |
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| _version_ | 1850221935860908032 |
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| author | Richard J. C. Brown |
| author_facet | Richard J. C. Brown |
| author_sort | Richard J. C. Brown |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The limit of detection (LoD) serves as an important method performance measure that is useful for the comparison of measurement techniques and the assessment of likely signal to noise performance, especially in environmental analytical chemistry. However, the LoD is only truly related to the precision characteristics of the analytical instrument employed for the analysis and the content of analyte in the blank sample. This article discusses how other criteria, such as sampling volume, can serve to distort the quoted LoD artificially and make comparison between various analytical methods inequitable. In order to compare LoDs between methods properly, it is necessary to state clearly all of the input parameters relating to the measurements that have been used in the calculation of the LoD. Additionally, the article discusses that the use of LoDs in contexts other than the comparison of the attributes of analytical methods, in particular when reporting analytical results, may be confusing, less informative than quoting the actual result with an accompanying statement of uncertainty, and may act to bias descriptive statistics. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-7132c92a76de4d09bf698a0fc1387ca9 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 1537-744X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2008-01-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Scientific World Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-7132c92a76de4d09bf698a0fc1387ca92025-08-20T02:06:31ZengWileyThe Scientific World Journal1537-744X2008-01-01879680110.1100/tsw.2008.107The Use and Abuse of Limits of Detection in Environmental Analytical ChemistryRichard J. C. Brown0Analytical Science Team, National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, Middlesex, UKThe limit of detection (LoD) serves as an important method performance measure that is useful for the comparison of measurement techniques and the assessment of likely signal to noise performance, especially in environmental analytical chemistry. However, the LoD is only truly related to the precision characteristics of the analytical instrument employed for the analysis and the content of analyte in the blank sample. This article discusses how other criteria, such as sampling volume, can serve to distort the quoted LoD artificially and make comparison between various analytical methods inequitable. In order to compare LoDs between methods properly, it is necessary to state clearly all of the input parameters relating to the measurements that have been used in the calculation of the LoD. Additionally, the article discusses that the use of LoDs in contexts other than the comparison of the attributes of analytical methods, in particular when reporting analytical results, may be confusing, less informative than quoting the actual result with an accompanying statement of uncertainty, and may act to bias descriptive statistics.http://dx.doi.org/10.1100/tsw.2008.107 |
| spellingShingle | Richard J. C. Brown The Use and Abuse of Limits of Detection in Environmental Analytical Chemistry The Scientific World Journal |
| title | The Use and Abuse of Limits of Detection in Environmental Analytical Chemistry |
| title_full | The Use and Abuse of Limits of Detection in Environmental Analytical Chemistry |
| title_fullStr | The Use and Abuse of Limits of Detection in Environmental Analytical Chemistry |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Use and Abuse of Limits of Detection in Environmental Analytical Chemistry |
| title_short | The Use and Abuse of Limits of Detection in Environmental Analytical Chemistry |
| title_sort | use and abuse of limits of detection in environmental analytical chemistry |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.1100/tsw.2008.107 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT richardjcbrown theuseandabuseoflimitsofdetectioninenvironmentalanalyticalchemistry AT richardjcbrown useandabuseoflimitsofdetectioninenvironmentalanalyticalchemistry |