Evaluation of Advia Centaur® automated chemiluminescence immunoassay for determining total homocysteine in plasma

Background. A lot of methods are now available for total plasma homocysteine (tHcy) determination. HPLC with fluorescence detection were the most widely used methods until recently but immunoassays, easier to use, currently supplant in-house laboratory methods. Methods. The latest commercial automated chemiluminescence immunoassay (ICL) for tHcy, developed on the ADVIA Centaur(R) analyzer (Bayer Diagnostics), was fully evaluated and compared with a current HPLC method. Results. The ICL-ADVIA Centaur(R) method had a detection limit <0.9 mumol/l and was linear for tHcy between 2.4 and 58.8 mumol/l. The within- and between assay imprecision was <6% and <7%, respectively. The analytical recovery ranged from 93.5% to 109.7%. The comparison of 168 clinical plasma specimens indicated a good correlation between the two methods (r=0.96, p<0.0001) but a systematic positive bias for ICL-ADVIA Centaur(R) method (mean difference=3.0 mumol/l). Conclusions. The ADVIA Centaur(R) method is a useful and practicable alternative to HPLC methods for tHcy determination. The ICL method is even more convenient than chromatographic methods for routine use because of its significantly higher throughput (200 samples/h vs. 40 per 24 h). However, the agreement among methods is insufficient to allow them to be used interchangeably. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.