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Clinical Chemistry 49: 315-317, 2003; 10.1373/49.2.315
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(Clinical Chemistry. 2003;49:315-317.)
© 2003 American Association for Clinical Chemistry, Inc.

Technical Briefs

Reference Intervals for Plasma Homocysteine by the AxSYM Immunoassay after Collection in Fluoride Tubes

Frédéric Cottona, Jean-Claude Wautrecht, Véronique Léchevin, Pascale Macours, Philippe Thiry, Christine Gervy and Jean-Marie Boeynaems

1 Hôpital Erasme, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 808 route de Lennik, B1070 Brussels, Belgium;

aauthor for correspondence: fax 32-2-555-6655, e-mail fcotton@ulb.ac.be

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

Homocysteine (HCy) is an intermediate amino acid formed during the metabolism of methionine to cysteine. In the recent years, it has emerged as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease independent of known other factors (1)(2)(3). The first methods developed for total plasma HCy measurements were HPLC, with or without derivatization, and gas chromatography. Later, immunoassays were developed, allowing automation and widespread use of the marker in the medical world. Plasma HCy is influenced by various factors: genetics, diet, sex, age, ethnic group, drugs, and diseases. EDTA-, citrate-, or heparin-anticoagulated blood may be used, but plasma should be immediately separated from blood cells to avoid spurious increases (4). Addition of different substances has been suggested to reduce these spurious increases in HCy concentrations. Acidic citrate has been shown to be effective in some studies (5) but not in others (6). A specific inhibitor of S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase (3-deaza-adenosine) was successfully used, but unfortunately, it is not compatible with immunoassays (7). Fluoride appears to be the most interesting additive. Ubbink et al. (8) showed that it prevents in vitro increases for 2 h. Several studies have confirmed this effect (9), although others have not (10). In most studies, plasma HCy from blood collected in fluoride tubes has been lower than in EDTA tubes (10)(11)(12).

Our aim was to evaluate the protective effect of fluoride against spurious increases of in vitro HCy and to establish reference intervals for . . . [Full Text of this Article]






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