title: Performance of a novel spectrophotometric lithium assay on a routine biochemistry analyser.
abstract: A new spectrophotometric lithium assay was assessed after adaption to a Hitachi 917. Results on this analyser were in close agreement with lithium measured on a flame photometer (95% confidence interval+/-0.06 mmol/L, n = 120). Assay precision was <2.5% over a range of lithium concentrations from 0.5-3.0 mmol/L. The assay was linear to 3 mmol/L and interference from haemolysis, icterus, lipaemia and other metal ions was minimal. The assay is a useful substitute or "back-up" for traditional lithium assays. Improved "on-board" calibration stability (currently 24 h) is required by improving the stability of uncapped reagent.
authors.affiliation: Department of Routine Biochemistry, SouthPath, Flinders Medical Centre, Bedford Park South Australia.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rumbelow
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Peake
mesh_terms: D018692:Antimanic Agents / Q000097:blood; D001774:Blood Chemical Analysis / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008094:Lithium / Q000097:blood*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013053:Spectrophotometry / Q000295:instrumentation*
chemical_list: D018692:Antimanic Agents; D008094:Lithium