Clin Lab
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Comparative Study
Detection of procalcitonin (PCT) in healthy controls and patients with local infection by a sensitive ILMA.
Procalcitonin (PCT) is an established marker for severe systemic bacterial infection and sepsis. So far the relevance of PCT in healthy individuals or patients with local infections is unclear due to the lack of highly sensitive assays. The aim of our study was the characterization of a new sensitive PCT assay, the establishment of reference values and the assessment of diagnostic accuracy. ⋯ The new PCT assay is 30 times more sensitive than the established routine assay LUMItest PCT, thus allowing for the first time PCT detection in healthy individuals. First results indicate that the assay is suitable to differentiate local bacterial infections from other non-infectious diseases.
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We evaluated the chemiluminescence immunoassays for the detection of the cardiac markers troponin I, myoglobin and CK-MB on the IMMULITE System (Diagnostic Products Corporation) in comparison to the same analytes of other companies. The IMMULITE assays are two-site solid phase immunometric assays using a murine monoclonal capture antibody on the solid phase and a polyclonal antibody conjugated with alkaline phosphatase (except CK-MB monoclonal, murine) for detection. Precision was investigated using serum pools with a low, a cutoff and a high concentration of the respective analyte. ⋯ The Abbott-Troponin I showed the highest diagnostic sensitivity within 4 hours after admission. All compared methods showed a similar diagnostic sensitivity (close to 100%) > 4 hours after admission. For all investigated methods the percentage of discrepant results decreased to a minimum 4 hours after admission.