Development and validation of an automated latex-enhanced immunoassay for prealbumin

The measurement of circulating prealbumin has been shown to be clinically useful in the assessment of nutritional status, both as an initial screen and in the monitoring of nutritional recovery. We describe a fully automated, noncompetitive, homogenous, light-scattering immunoassay that has been developed for this analyte on a Dimension(R) (Dade) analyzer. A sheep anti-prealbumin IgG fraction was covalently coupled to 40-nm chloromethyl styrene particles and, after the addition of sample, polyethylene glycol-assisted immunoagglutination was monitored by turbidimetry. The prealbumin working assay range was 8-550 mg/L at a sample volume of 2 mu L and a reaction time of 6.5 min. When data were analyzed using ANOVA, total and within-run assay imprecision values (CVs) were 1-5%, and calibration and reagent stabilities were in excess of 40 days. Mean analytical recoveries were 102% +/- 4% (SD), and there was no lack of parallelism. Hemolysis, lipemia, and bilirubin did not interfere. Both plasma anticoagulated with heparin or EDTA and serum from plain or serum-separation tubes were acceptable as sample matrices. Comparison with the Beekman Array(R) method gave a Passing and Bablok regression of: Dimension analyzer = 1.01Beckman + 7.1 (n = 103), using a common calibrator. We conclude that the prealbumin method is appropriate for clinical use according to the analytical criteria used in this study.