COMPARISON OF 2 COMMERCIAL KITS FOR THE ENZYMATIC DETERMINATION OF NONESTERIFIED FATTY-ACIDS IN GOAT SERUM

Nonesterified fatty acids (NEFA) are often measured in the study of nu trition and growth physiology. Commercial kits for the spectrophotomet ric determination of NEFA usually involve two coupled enzymatic reacti ons that produce H2O2, that is quantified with peroxidase. Using goat sera, two commercial kits were compared and the precision analyzed, ta king into account variability between goats, and between and within sa mples. In the tests the Wake kit gave higher values and a better withi n-samples precision than the Randox kit. Nevertheless, both kit tests gave similar precision and the values obtained with the Randox test we re slightly more elevated when human sera were analyzed. However, the stability of the prepared reagents is also better with the Wake kit. T his fact could be important when a large number of samples has to be d etermined. These results indicate that analytical kits developed for h uman clinical chemistry are not always useful for veterinary purposes and that precautions should be taken when nonhuman samples are analyze d. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.