Fraction of examined values that is different from a reference nominal property value among all the examined values provided.
Examples: - The reference nominal property value is "B". The nominal property value set of all possible nominal property values is {A, B}. For one of 10 examinations the examined value differs from "B". The examination uncertainty is therefore 0.1 (\(\pu{10\%}\)).
- A patient suffers from a urinary tract infection. The examination result from the examination procedure is growth of bacteria of the species \(E.\ coli\) in a sample of urine with \(\pu{20\%}\) examination uncertainty. With knowledge and experience from the examination procedure it can be concluded that there is some probability that the true species of bacteria could be instead a \(Salmonella\) or \(Shigella\) species, while the probability that the reference nominal property value is some other species of bacteria is very low.
Notes: - Examination uncertainty is a quantity that is complementary to examination trueness.
- Examination uncertainty is a part of an examination result.
- With exception of the situation where the examination uncertainty is zero, some examined values differ from the reference nominal property value. In a comment to the examination result, the laboratory can provide information about other possible nominal property values, based on the information available.
Source:
PAC, 2018, 90, 913. 'Vocabulary on nominal property, examination, and related concepts for clinical laboratory sciences (IFCC-IUPAC Recommendations 2017)' on page 923 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2011-0613)