title: Applicability of three commercially available kits for forensic identification of blood stains.
abstract: Various commercially available one-step immunoassays for detection of human (primate) blood have been developed. This study evaluated two hemoglobin tests, ABAcard(®) HemaTrace(®) and HemDirect Hemoglobin against glycophorin A test-RSID™-Blood for following parameters: sensitivity, specificity, effectiveness using various substrates, stain remover and aged blood stains. The highest blood detection limit was observed if HemaTrace(®) was used. When compared with HemaTrace(®), ten times lower sensitivity was observed for HemDirect Hemoglobin test. No false positives were obtained for HemDirect Hemoglobin while ABAcard(®) HemaTrace(®), probably due to its extreme sensitivity, showed high percent of false positives with saliva. The lowest sensitivity and 40% of false positives with saliva was exhibited by RSID™-Blood. In addition, this test encountered the lowest efficacy if aged blood-stains or blood treated with stain remover were used. As expected, none of the tested substrates (wood, metal, brick, and soil), influenced on blood testing, although soil substrate affected STR amplification. Conducted studies established HemDirect Hemoglobin test as more reliable for evaluated parameters than ABAcard(®) HemaTrace(®) and RSID™-Blood.
authors.affiliation: Ivan Vucetic Forensic Science Centre, General Police Directorate, Ministry of Interior, Ilica 335, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia. Electronic address: ihorjan@mup.hr.
authors.forename: Ivana
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Horjan
authors.affiliation: Ivan Vucetic Forensic Science Centre, General Police Directorate, Ministry of Interior, Ilica 335, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia. Electronic address: lbarbaric@mup.hr.
authors.forename: Lucija
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Barbaric
authors.affiliation: Ivan Vucetic Forensic Science Centre, General Police Directorate, Ministry of Interior, Ilica 335, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia; University Centre for Forensic Sciences, University of Split, Rudjera Boskovica 31, 21000 Split, Croatia. Electronic address: gmrsic@mup.hr.
authors.forename: Gordan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mrsic
mesh_terms: D001801:Blood Stains; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting; D005554:Forensic Medicine / Q000295:instrumentation*; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D006454:Hemoglobins
keywords: Blood tests; Forensic science; Sensitivity; Specificity