SUMMARY. This study assesses the potential for using mid-infrared (mid-IR) spectroscopy of dried serum films as the basis for the simultaneous quantitation of eight serum analytes: total protein, albumin, triglycerides, cholesterol, glucose, urea, creatinine and uric acid. Infrared transmission spectra were acquired for 300 serum samples, each analysed independently using accepted reference clinical chemical methods. Quantitation methods were based upon the infrared spectra and reference analyses for 200 specimens, and the models validated using the remaining 100 samples. Standard errors in the IR-predicted analyte levels (Sy/x) were 2,8 gil (total protein), 2·2 gil (albumin), 0·23 mmol/L (triglycerides), 0·28 mmol/L (cholesterol), 0-41 mmol/L (glucose) and 1·1 mmol/L for urea, with correlation coefficients (IR vs reference analyses) of 0·95 or better. The IR method emerged to be less suited for creatinine (Sy/x = J.lmol/L) and uric acid (Sy]» = 140 J.lmol/L) due to the relatively low concentrations typical of these analytes.
Additional key phrases: clinical chemistry analyses. urea, glucose, protein. albuminRecent years have witnessed an explosion in analytical applications of infrared (IR) spectroscopy. The IR spectral range extends from 780 to 25000nm (I2800cm-1 to 400cm-l ) and is commonly subdivided further into regions including the near-IR (4000--12 800 em -I) and mid-JR (40Q--4000cm-I ) . The potential of this technique has been realized by combining the ever-improving sensitivity of modern spectrometers with powerful multivariate quantitation and classification methods that permit essentially all of the relevant information latent in the spectrum to be usefully extracted. These advances have spurred a number of clinical and diagnostic applications including the quantitation of urine constituents, 1 the differential diagnosis of arthritis based upon the JR spectrum of either synovial fluid? or the residue left upon drying synovial fluid to a film,3.4 estimation of faecal fat content.! microspectroscopy of osteonal bone," the IR measurement of the lecithin/sphingomyelin ratio (an indicator of foetal lung maturity) in amniotic fluid," and the Issued as NRCC publication No. 3479\. Correspondence: R Anthony Shaw. E-mail: shaw@ibd.nrc.ca 624 differentiation of leukaemic from normal lymphoid cells."The promise of IR-based analysis is instrumentation that can rapidly and simultaneously quantitate several constituents without using specific reagents. In contrast to common enzymatic and colorimetric methods, which rely upon unique chemical agents to recognize and quantify dissolved species, the method proposed here is founded upon the unique absorption patterns that characterize the analytes themselves. While previous studies based upon the mid-IR 9 and near-IR lo . 11 spectra of native serum have demonstrated promising results, neither has been adopted for routine clinical use. This may be due to the fact that although both have shown potential in trials carried out on individual spectrometers, the long-term sta...