A New Automated Turbidimetnc Immunoassay for Quantifying a1-Antitrypsin in Serum

This rapid, sensitive equilibrium turbidimetric immunoassay for quantification of a1-antitrypsin involves a monospecific antibody, polyethyleneglycol 6000 to accelerate and enhance the immunoprecipitation reaction, and Tween 20 surfactant to decrease and stabilize the sample-blank values. Turbidity at 334 nm is measured by an automated discrete analyzer. Grossly lipemic, icteric, or hemolyzed samples can be assayed. Correlation with results by radial immunodiffusion (RID) was excellent (r = 0.97, n = 84). Analytical recovery averaged 97.7 (SD 2.9)%. Within-run CV5 ranged from 1.6 to 1.9%, between-day CV5 from 2.0 to 3.5%. Reference values for healthy adults (n = 147) were determined by parametric estimation (for an assumed normal distribution of untransformed data). The lower limit (g/L) with its 0.90 confidence interval is 1.23 (range 1.18-1.28), the upper limit is 2.15 (2.10-2.20), and the mean is 1.69 g/L.