Multiple immunoassay systems are negatively interfered by circulating cardiac troponin I autoantibodies

Circulating cardiac troponin I (cTnI) autoantibodies have recently been detected in more and more patients with myocardial injury. In the present study, a total of 121 patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) were screened for cTnI autoantibodies using an indirect ELISA. Positive results were further confirmed by Western blot analysis. As a result, 13 autoantibody-positive sera were identified, in which cTnI values detected by different immunoassay systems are very different. Further evaluation revealed low recovery in one of the 13 samples with the Access 2 system (Beckman Coulter, 2 boolean AND generation), one low and one moderate recovery sample with Architect i2000 (Abbott), one low and two moderate with AxSYM (Abbott), two low and three moderate with Dimension Xpand (Dade Behring, 2 boolean AND generation), and four low and one moderate with Vidas (bioMerieux). Our work demonstrates that circulating cTnI autoantibodies occur in part of patients with AMI and, for the first time to our knowledge, shows that these autoantibodies can result in considerable negative interference in all the five commonly used cTnI immunoassay systems, which may lead to incorrect diagnoses and following treatments. The indirect ELISA established in our laboratory is suitable for a rapid preliminary screening for cTnI autoantibody in clinical work.