What should I do for standards and controls for Factor VIII?

DiaPharma has calibrators, normal and abnormal controls available. Clinicians can also use their own pooled normal plasma; however, it must be calibrated against an international standard to be sure what concentration the plasma has. If the normal plasma does not contain exactly 1 IU/ml ( which corresponds to 100%) factor VIII, the values of the standards must be recalculated in order to obtain a correct factor potency assignment. Reference plasma is available from the National Institute for Biological Standards and Controls (NBSB). The calibration should be performed by running complete standard curves on two or more independent occasions. Industrial manufacturers, in contrast, use for their standard Mega-2, which is a compilation of factor VIII concentrate.