title: Transient nature of interference effects from heterophile antibodies: examples of interference with cardiac marker measurements.
abstract: Two-site immunoassay methods have become the standard technique for measurement of a wide variety of drugs, hormones, and cell proteins. One limitation of these methods is their susceptibility to interference from heterophilic antibodies present in the sera of some patients. Human anti-murine antibodies represent a common heterophile antibody that can bind to mouse immunoglobulin and as well as to immunoglobulin from other species. While the mechanism of human anti-murine antibody interference has been well characterized, the time course over which this interference occurs and the susceptibility of different immunoassay procedures to human anti-murine antibody interference from patients with human anti-murine antibody have not been as well described. We report on the time course of interference in assays for cardiac markers for two patients with human anti-murine antibodies. We measured creatine kinase MB isoenzyme (CKMB) and troponins I and T using three different vendors' immunoassay procedures. Our results demonstrate that assay interference due to human anti-murine antibody interference is a transient phenomenon. In one of our patients, human anti-murine antibody interference appeared suddenly, peaked approximately 9 days following its appearance, and gradually resolved over the next 3 weeks. In addition, we found that immunoassay methods from different vendors can show highly variable interference effects when human anti-murine antibody-containing specimens are analyzed.
authors.affiliation: East Carolina University School of Medicine, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Greenville, NC 27858-4354, USA. kaz@brody.med.ecu.edu
authors.forename: S C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Kazmierczak
authors.forename: P G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Catrou
authors.forename: K P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Briley
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D000910:Antibodies, Heterophile / Q000276:immunology*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis*; D003251:Constriction, Pathologic / Q000097:blood / Q000201:enzymology / Q000276:immunology; D004691:Endarterectomy; D005260:Female; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013575:Syncope / Q000097:blood / Q000201:enzymology / Q000276:immunology; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D000910:Antibodies, Heterophile; D015415:Biomarkers