title: A lipemia-independent NanoDrop(®)-based score to identify hemolysis in plasma and serum samples.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The identification and management of hemolyzed samples are crucial issues in the development of new blood-based biomarkers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Using experiments of controlled hemolysis and lipemia and two plasma series from cancer patients, we developed and validated a lipemia-independent hemolysis score (HS). HS resulted strictly associated with the amount of lysed erythrocytes and with serum index measurement (reference method), highly reproducible, and able to identify as hemolyzed plasma/serum samples containing ≥6.1 mg/dl of free hemoglobin.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We developed a simple, robust, sensitive, cost-effective, spectrophotometrically-based system to identify hemolyzed plasma/serum specimens. The procedure requires only 2 μl of sample, thus representing a useful tool for research studies and an essential pre-analytical quality control for an optimal biobanking of liquid biopsies.
authors.affiliation: Unit of Biomarkers, Department of Experimental Oncology & Molecular Medicine, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Via Amadeo 42, 20133 Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Appierto
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Callari
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cavadini
authors.forename: Daniele
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Morelli
authors.forename: Maria Grazia
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Daidone
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tiberio
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000166:cytology; D006461:Hemolysis; D006801:Humans; D006949:Hyperlipidemias / Q000097:blood*; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000097:blood*; D011786:Quality Control; D013053:Spectrophotometry
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers