title: Evaluation of an endotoxin-specific limulus amebocyte lysate assay using leukocyte-rich plasma for the diagnosis of gram-negative bacterial infection.
abstract: We focused our attention on the endotoxin present within and on the surface of white blood cells and attempted to establish a new sample preparation method for endotoxin assays in leukocyte-rich plasma (LRP), taking advantage of the erythrocyte-aggregating property of hydroxyethyl starch. We used an endotoxin-specific turbidimetric kinetic assay, which is the conventional method used to assay endotoxin levels in platelet-rich plasma (PRP). Then, we comparatively assessed the assay results obtained with the endotoxin assay using PRP and LRP. It was found that the sensitivity of endotoxin assay in LRP was 88.5 %, which was superior to 73.1 % of the sensitivity in PRP in the diagnosis of infections caused by gram-negative bacteria. These results suggest that our newly developed LRP endotoxin assay may contribute to an improvement in the rate of sepsis diagnosis.
authors: Department of Critical Care Medicine, School of Medicine, Iwate Medical University, Uchimaru 19-1, Morioka, Japan. kanshige@iwate-med.ac.jp
authors: Shigenori
authors: S
authors: Kan
authors: Gaku
authors: G
authors: Takahashi
authors: Chiaki
authors: C
authors: Onodera
authors: Tatsuyori
authors: T
authors: Shouzushima
authors: Naoya
authors: N
authors: Matsumoto
authors: Katsuya
authors: K
authors: Inada
authors: Shigeatsu
authors: S
authors: Endo
mesh_terms: D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004731:Endotoxins / Q000097:blood*; D016905:Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D006895:Hydroxyethyl Starch Derivatives / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D007962:Leukocytes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000187:drug effects; D008033:Limulus Test / Q000379:methods*; D012372:ROC Curve
chemical_list: D004731:Endotoxins; D006895:Hydroxyethyl Starch Derivatives