The results of this study suggest that measurement of free testosterone and cortisol in saliva may be seen as a reliable alternative to their assessment in serum.
iXip shows a significant increase in diagnostic performance compared to PSA and PSA-IgM and its post-screening use may facilitate decision-making in recommending for biopsy clinically suspected patients.
Our laboratory performs procalcitonin (PCT) assays on a Brahms KRYPTOR analyzer with the Brahms PCT sensitive Kryptor kit. In this study, we wanted to compare the assays obtained in this way with the ones performed on the LIAISON® XL. From January to May 2017, 171 samples were analyzed, of which 65 from female patients (age: 22–98 years) and 106 from male patients (age: 16–97 years). The PCT determination was performed using the LIAISON® XL and KRYPTOR analyzers, by chemiluminescence (Chemiluminescence immunoassay—CLIA) (LIAISON® BRAHMS PCT® II GEN) and immunofluorescence (Brahms PCT sensitive Kryptor) assay, respectively. For the LIAISON® BRAHMS PCT® II GEN, 52% of the results were placed between 0.0 and 0.5 ng/mL, 18% between 0.5 and 2.0 ng/mL, and 30% between 2.0 and 100 ng/mL; the mean was 4.09 ng/mL, the median 0.456 ng/mL, the maximum value 97.2 ng/mL, and the minimum value 0.02 ng/mL. For the Brahms PCT sensitive Kryptor, 55% of the results were positioned between 0.0 and 0.5 ng/mL, 21% between 0.5 and 2.0 ng/mL, and 24% between 2.0 and 100 ng/mL; the mean was 3.72 ng/mL, the median 0.39 ng/mL, the maximum value 103 ng/mL, and the minimum value 0.01 ng/mL. The mean of the results obtained with the two methods showed no significant differences (3.717 for Kryptor and 4.094 for LIAISON®). PCT assay with Brahms reagents, both on the Kryptor and LIAISON®XL platforms, offers excellent performance in terms of sensitivity and specificity.
The demand for routine measurement of ferritin is constantly increasing in clinical laboratories due to the clinical value of this biomarker for diagnosing anemia. Therefore, this study was aimed to compare the newly commercialized Maglumi ferritin immunoluminometric assay with a validated commercial and fully automated technique.The comparison study included 95 consecutive inpatient serum samples referred to the local laboratory for routine ferritin measurement. Serum was separated, divided in two paired aliquots and immediately analyzed with both Beckman Coulter DxI 800 and Maglumi 2000. Correlation was assessed with Deming fit and Spearman’s correlation, the mean bias was estimated with Bland-Altman plot. The concordance between methods was calculated as percentage agreement and κ coefficient.An excellent correlation was observed between Maglumi and DxI (r=0.997). The mean bias was 34 ng/mL and the strength of agreement between values obtained with Maglumi and DxI was 98% and 100% at the lower and upper limits of the reference range. The agreement was also 98% for diagnosing iron deficiency and 94% for diagnosing iron overload.Maglumi immunoassay may be regarded as a suitable alternative for routine and fully-automated assessment of ferritin in clinical laboratories.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.