Latex agglutination test for ferritin measurement

Abstract

Ferritin is an indispensable parameter in the diagnosis of latent iron deficiency anemia or siderosis. In this study, we evaluated the utility of a reagent for ferritin measurement in a latex agglutination (LA) test, using general chemistry analyzers. The intraassay coefficient of variation (CV) was 0.8-3.4% and the interassay CV was 0.0-0.7%. Linearity was observed up to 1100 ng/mL. The effective sensitivity value was 4.0 ng/mL. In addition, good results were obtained with the prozone test, the effects of interferences, correlation with the enzyme immunoassay (EIA) method, and functional assay sensitivity. A significant positive correlation with C-reactive protein (r=0.586, P<0.001) was found. When compared with liver-related biochemical parameters (asparate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT)) in patients with impaired liver function, ferritin varied in parallel with the liver-related parameters. This assay system was able to measure ferritin accurately over a wide range, and thus could be used to diagnose cancer, siderosis, and iron deficiency anemia. The LA assay system can be employed for measurement with general chemistry analyzers, with rapid and convenient execution. In addition, the LA test allows the simultaneous measurement of other markers of iron deficiency anemia, so clinicians can rapidly obtain examination results.

Comparison of Ferritin Measurement Performance Through Immunoturbidimetric and Chemiluminescence Methods in Patients with Critical Ferritin Levels

“…They have reported that the latex immunoturbidimetric ferritin assay could be conducted using BA 400 LED Technology, or other clinical chemistry instruments, this way, measurements such as serum iron, total iron binding capacity, soluble transferrin receptor and transferrin saturation index could be done simultaneously alongside the serum ferritin measurement, using a single sample on the same device [20]. In a study on analyses using the latex agglutination method in clinical chemistry analyzers, Kotajima., et al found that the ferritin results were correlated to those from the enzymoimmunoassay (EIA) method [27].…”

“…They have stated that accurate ferritin results were obtained on a broad range, thus, this method could be used in diagnosing iron deficiency anemia, siderosis and malignancy [27]. They have also claimed that by using the latex agglutination method on clinical chemistry analyzers, ferritin could be measured simultaneously with the other parameters of iron deficiency anemia and clinicians could obtain the results faster [27]. For this study, although a strong correlation was observed between the PETIA and ECLIA, during the measurement of the standards' concentrations, PETIA was found to measure the ferritin levels lower than actual.…”