Comparison of Three Methods for Measurement of HbA1c

Aim: To compare three methods for measurement of blood HbA1c as to reliability, ease and time consumption." Method: Measurements of HbA1c were made in blood from 120 patients with pre-diabetes and diabetes using a turbidimetric inhibition immunoassay (TINIA), which also required measurement of total hemoglobin, a particle-enhanced immunoturbidimetric assay (PEITT) without measurement of total hemoglobin, and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Results: There was good concordance between results of PEITT and HPLC methods (r = 0.9401, p<0.0001 and by Deming Regression; y = 0.9978x + 0.24). The average HbA1c (7.52 +/- 1.40 %) measured by HPLC was higher than the other methods (TINIA: 7.12 +/- 1.66 % and PEITT: 7.26 +/- 1.39 %, p<0.0001). The measured total time spent on 120 samples was 45 min. for TINIA, 39 min. for PEITT and 384 min. for HPLC. Conclusion: It has been found that, the PEITT method, which is reliable, faster, and easier to perform, can be used as an alternative to TINIA and HPLC measuring system within the known imprecision limits."