Abstract

Background: Fibrinogen is routinely determined by functional assay on citrated plasma in the hematology department. However, immunoassay can be performed easily with nephelometric analyzer in the clinical chemistry laboratory allowing automatization. The aim of this study was first to compare the clotting von Clauss method (activity assay) with an immunonephelometric method (antigen assay) on the BN ProSpec™ (Dade Behring). Moreover, we evaluated the possibility of collecting blood samples on heparin to facilitate blood collection for clinicians and reduce required blood collection volumes for dosages.
Methods: In a first step of experiment, the accuracy of immunonephelometric analytical performance was tested on heparinized and citrated tubes. For comparison studies, fibrinogen activity was then determined on citrated tubes in the hematology department and antigen measurement was performed on both citrated and heparinized plasma from 130 consecutive patients.
Results: As a result, the immunonephelometric method shows reliable performance and clinical sample measurements are not affected by the method used, validating the use of heparinized plasma samples for fibrinogen antigen determination with Dade Behring reagents.

DOI: Clin. Lab. 2005;51:285-288