title: Evaluation of a new enzymatic method for homocysteine measurement.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The increased need in clinical chemistry laboratories for methods of homocysteine determination, in correlation with cardiovascular diseases and nutritional deficient status, has led to the development of different analytical methods; fluorescent immunoenzymatic assays and, recently, new fully automated spectrophotometric methods are commercially available. In this paper, we compared data obtained from a new enzymatic method for homocysteine assay (Carolina Liquid Chemistries), with data obtained from a HPLC reference method and an immunoenzymatic method (Abbott AxSYM immunoassay).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The enzymatic method shows a good correlation with both the HPLC (Y = -1.3 + 1.02X; R2 = 0.93) and the immunoenzymatic method (Y = 0.7 + 1.02X; R2 = 0.92), although a bias enhancement was present in some samples. However, the enzymatic method shows a superior analytical feasibility because it needs only common laboratory instruments (UV-visible spectrophotometer) and can be easily adapted to large automatic clinical chemistry analyzers. Moreover, it lowers the laboratory cost of the analysis in comparison to both HPLC and immunoenzymatic methods.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The enzymatic Carolina Liquid Chemistries method for homocysteine assay shows acceptable analytical performance and undoubtedly possesses technical and cost advantages.
authors.affiliation: Centro di Ricerca e Formazione ad Alta Tecnologia nelle Scienze Biomediche, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Contrada Tappino Campobasso, Italy. bzappacosta@rm.unicatt.it
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zappacosta
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Persichilli
authors.forename: Angelo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Minucci
authors.forename: Donata
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Scribano
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Baroni
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fasanella
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Neri
authors.forename: Pio Dante
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Daloiso
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Giardina
authors.forename: Pasquale
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: De Sole
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D003541:Cystathionine beta-Synthase; D005260:Female; D006710:Homocysteine / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D007770:L-Lactate Dehydrogenase; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009243:NAD; D012694:Serine; D013053:Spectrophotometry
chemical_list: D006710:Homocysteine; D009243:NAD; D012694:Serine; D007770:L-Lactate Dehydrogenase; D003541:Cystathionine beta-Synthase