Over the past 20 years the Molecular Disease Branch (MDB) of the NHLBI has studied human lipid metabolism disorders by analyzing tens of thousands of blood samples from nearly 7,000 individuals. Until quite recently, all of the accumulated data were gathered and entered entirely by hand into central NIH Computer Utility databases. As reported in FY91, the Lipid Analysis Sample Tracking System (LASTS) is a comprehensive PC-based system for recording the results of lipid analyses performed on plasma samples. Identifying information about the samples is entered into databases maintained on a laboratory PC and verified when the sample is acquired. The samples, identified by bar-coded labels, are subdivided for analysis. The system maintains records of the number of samples awaiting each type of analysis, scheduling appropriate test runs when a sufficient number of samples have accumulated. As each analysis is performed, the results are either captured directly from the colorimetric analyzer or keyed by the bar-coded label for manual entry. The results to date on each sample are maintained in a database that can be searched by laboratory personnel or the referring physician. Once the validity of the test results has been certified, the sample data are copied to a report dataset that is then transferred to the NIH Central Computer Utility and incorporated into the MDB lipid study databases. Verified data are also maintained locally in a form suitable for access by PC-based database query programs. Statistics about controls and standards are also maintained. The LASTS system is now in full production use. The time required to log and schedule samples has been drastically decreased and, more importantly, the investigators have found that the improved access to their results has enabled them to think about their experiments in completely new ways.
