Remarks on small sample size taken from reference population for examination of factor VIII.
Investigation of plasma factor VIII activities in 20 reference (normal) individuals (N = 20) is frequently used to evaluate the reference distribution parameters by means of simple statistical method. Two examples demonstrate the inaccuracy of conclusions of such a small sample of data. The first one shows the comparison of estimate of F.VIII:C reference limits obtained from examination of 6 different groups randomly chosen (N = 20 each) with a group of N = 120 reference individuals. The second example presents the balance of haemophilia A carrier detection rate performed in 30 obligatory carriers and 42 normal women by examination of F.VIII:C and VWF-Ag using universal discriminant. The correction figures typical for specific conditions of our laboratory are obtained from examination of N = 20 and N = 80 individuals and using heuristic optimalization.