Comparing different methods for homocysteine determination.
Slightly elevated values of homocysteine are commonly associated with thromboembolic diseases, while high values can be found in patients with congenital metabolic defects or nutritional problems. The clinical use of homocysteine as an independent marker of cardiovascular disease was limited in the past by technical problems with its measurement, the instrumentation (HPLC, radioenzymatic assays, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, etc.) and the necessary skills required. Commercially available immunoassays now permit a simpler and more rapid measurement of homocysteine, that is more suitable for routine clinical laboratories; in this paper we analyze the results obtained by using three fully automated methods for homocysteine determination (Abbott IMx immunoassay, Abbott AxSYM immunoassay and Immulite 2000 homocysteine immunoassay) and their correlation with the widely used HPLC method. The results clearly indicate that all three automated immunochemical methods correlate well with the HPLC method (slope 0.97-1.03; intercept 0.95-1.91 with a recovery above 95% for all three methods).
Zappacosta
Bruno
B
Istituto di Biochimica e Biochimica Clinica, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy. b.zappacosta@uniserv.ccr.rm.cnr.it
Persichilli
Silvia
S
Scribano
Donata
D
Minucci
Angelo
A
Lazzaro
Daniele
D
De Sole
Pasquale
P
Giardina
Bruno
B
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D005260:Female; D016231:Fluorescence Polarization Immunoassay / Q000379:methods; D006710:Homocysteine / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013223:Statistics as Topic
D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic; D006710:Homocysteine