Comparison of surface plasmon resonance transferrin quantification with a common immunoturbidimetric method

The variation in the results from different clinical laboratories testing the same patient sample using classical methods for serum transferrin determination can affect interpretation. We developed a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) method for serum transferrin assay that may aid standardization. Quantification of transferrin was performed by direct analysis on a Biacore system (GE Healthcare). We assessed analytical performance of this new assay and compared it to a common immunoturbidimetric method (Beckman Coulter). Intra-run coefficients of variation (CV) were up to 1.10% and inter-day CVs were up to 2.10%. The comparison of this new SPR assay (Biacore) with a classical immunoturbidimetric method (Beckman Coulter) showed a good correlation ( r = 0.959), and the Bland and Altman plot with no global significant difference. According excellent achievement of SPR transferrin determination, we suggest its use as an independent method for comparison different immunoassays. This could be an important tool to help clinical laboratories to deliver standardized values, essential for the decision to investigate genetic hereditary hemochromatosis.