title: Interference by heterophilic antibodies in immunoassays: wrong increase of myoglobin values.
abstract: Aim of this work is to illustrate how analytical interference in immunoassay may produce serious errors in clinical laboratory results. The sophisticated quality assurance schemes used in many laboratories do not identify erroneous results arising from aberrant samples. Recently attention has been focused on the incidence and implication of false-positive results arising from the presence of certain substances in a patient's serum that interfere with one or more steps in immunoassays. In this paper, we present the case of a 92 year-old woman whose plasma myoglobin concentrations falsely increased when measured using the Beckman Access assay. We demonstrated that heterophilic antibodies accounted for the falsely increased myoglobin values, and we suggest how to resolve such situations.
authors.affiliation: Dept of Clinical Sciences, University of Parma, Italy. antonio.bonetti@unipr.it
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bonetti
authors.forename: Cesare
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Monica
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bonaguri
authors.forename: Cecilia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gnocchi
authors.forename: Annalisa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Russo
authors.forename: Luisita
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Battistelli
authors.forename: Luisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Musiari
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pastori
authors.forename: Almerico
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Novarini
mesh_terms: D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000910:Antibodies, Heterophile / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology*; D019411:Clinical Laboratory Techniques; D003298:Coombs Test; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007118:Immunoassay; D009211:Myoglobin / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000910:Antibodies, Heterophile; D009211:Myoglobin