EVALUATION OF INSTRUMENTAL, NONISOTOPIC IMMUNOASSAYS (FLUORESCENCE POLARIZATION IMMUNOASSAY AND ENZYME-MULTIPLIED IMMUNOASSAY TECHNIQUE) FOR CYCLOSPORINE MONITORING IN WHOLE-BLOOD AFTER KIDNEY AND LIVER-TRANSPLANTATION

Two new instrumental methods, an enzyme-multiplied immunoassay technique(EMIT) and a fluorescence polarization immunoassay (FPIA), were evaluated for monitoring of cyclosporine (CyA) in whole blood samples of renal and liver transplant patients. They are considered as being specific to the parent drug and they were compared with a specific radioimmunoassay (RIA) and a nonspecific FPIA. The data reveal that the novel procedures provide slightly overestimated CyA levels compared with specific RIA (6-12% for EMIT, 20-25% for FPIA). For both assays, intrarun and interrun reproducibilities were found to be in the 2-8% range. The ease of performance and the possibility of performing approximately 40 assays/h make the two methodologies very attractive for both routine and emergency analyses. These approaches are viewed to be complementary to the only previously available instrumental method, the nonspecific FPIA, which provides three- to fourfold higher CyA levels than those obtained with specific methods. Specific and nonspecific monitoring of CyA levels allowed variations in proportions of metabolites to total CyA and metabolites to be distinguished. A higher percentage and variability of cross-reacting metabolites were found in whole blood samples after liver transplantation compared with those in blood of kidney transplant recipients.