Abstract Circulating myoglobin is recognized as an early and sensitive marker of acute coronary diseases. Long turnaround time of myoglobin assays jeopardize their clinical utility. We evaluated the analytical performance of the Stratus® CS fluorometric enzyme immunoassay based on dendrimer technology, and claimed to achieve a fast and reliable determination of plasma myoglobin concentrations. Precision complied with the recommended analytical performance criteria. Method comparison and recovery experiments indicated, that despite good between-method correlations, the Stratus® CS method overestimated myoglobin concentrations in comparison with values obtained on Cobas® Integra 400 and BN™A. However, since the manufacturers’ cut-off for elevated plasma myoglobin levels was higher for Stratus® CS than for other techniques, few discrepant results were observed between methods. Elevated levels of hemoglobin, triglycerides and rheumatoid factors did not interfere in the Stratus® CS method but hyperbilirubinemia caused a positive difference. Circulerend myoglobine wordt beschouwd als een vroege en gevoelige merker voor acute coronaire aandoeningen. De lange analysetijd beknot echter de klinische bruikbaarheid van myoglobine-assays. We evalueerden de analytische performantie van de op dendrimeertechnologie gebaseerde Stratus® CS fluorometrische enzym-immunoassay, en bevonden de assay als een snelle en betrouwbare bepalingsmethode voor myoglobineconcentraties in plasma. De precisie voldeed aan de aanbevolen analytische performantiecriteria. Methodenvergelijking en recovery-experimenten toonden, ondanks de bevredigende correlaties tussen de verschillende methodes, een overschatting aan van de myoglobineconcentraties bepaald met Stratus® CS, in vergelijking met deze bepaald met Cobas® Integra 400 en BN™A. Daar de door de fabrikant vermelde cut-off voor verhoogde myoglobineconcentraties in plasma hoger was voor Stratus® CS dan voor de andere methoden, werden slechts weinig discrepante resultaten tussen de verschillende methoden teruggevonden. Verhoogde concentraties aan hemoglobine, triglyceriden en reumatoïde factoren, interfereerden niet met de Stratus® CS-methode, doch hyperbilirubinemie veroorzaakte een positief verschil.

Elevated procalcitonin (PCT) levels are markers of sepsis but their prognostic value and relation to other inFlammatory parameters and calcium homeostasis remains controversial. We investigated whether in a cohort of patients with acute septic shock 1) PCT correlated with CRP, leucocyte count, ionized calcium (Ca2+), clinical severity and survival; 2) diagnostic information provided by (changes in) PCT and CRP was similar.

The classification of pleural effusions as transudates or exudates often is an early step in their evaluation (1)(2)(3)(4). Exudates but not transudates require additional and often invasive diagnostic procedures. The criteria of Light et al. (5) for classification of pleural effusions have been reported to lead to unwarranted invasive diagnostic procedures in 20–30% of patients with a transudate (1)(3) and to misclassify some exudates as transudates (3)(4).Protein analysis has been proposed to improve classification into transudates or exudates based on the assumption that large proteins are present only in exudates because of the increased capillary permeability (1). Agarose gel electrophoresis (AGE) has been the standard procedure for serum protein fractionation for >30 years, but it is laborious and methods do not agree (6)(7)(8). Capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) is an attractive alternative (6)(9)(10) and avoids between-protein differences in dye affinity.We evaluated the Beckman Paragon CZETM 2000 system, a multicapillary instrument for automated serum protein electrophoresis (7)(8), for quantitative fractionation of proteins in body fluids.For method comparison, leftover samples from 49 pleural and 11 ascitic fluids from 47 inpatients were used. There were no preset selection criteria regarding age, sex, or type of disease (11); however, only 37 pleural effusions were classified as transudates or exudates after exclusion of patients lacking definitive clinical diagnosis (n = 5), patients with multiple diagnoses (n = 3), or in case of interference by radioopaque agents (n = 4). A serum sample was collected simultaneously with the pleural fluid (n = 30) or within 24 h before (n = 13) or after (n = 17) the puncture. Final diagnosis was retrieved from the patient’s file based on the conclusions reached by …

We report age-related reference intervals for capillary zone electrophoresis for children between 1 and 14 years of age.