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This second edition of the highly successful "Basics of Quality Assurance for Intermediate and Peripheral Laboratories" has been revised to better meet the needs of laboratory specialists, technologists and technicians at the front line of quality assurance. Chapters on quality assurance during the pre-analytical phases, control of laboratory investigations, data handling and processing, laboratory management and organization, use and maintenance of laboratory equipment, safety precautions in the laboratory, and external quality assessment, have been revised and updated, and are supplemented by a new chapter on comparability of results. The annex on statistics and the glossary have also been substantially revised. It is expected that this much needed publication will be of interest to developing countries throughout the world.