SERUM-PROTEIN ELECTROPHORESIS BY CZE-2000 CLINICAL CAPILLARY ELECTROPHORESIS SYSTEM

We compared the automated Paragon 2000 clinical capillary zone electro phoresis (CZE) system with two manual methods, agarose electrophoresis (AGE) and cellulose acetate electrophoresis (CAE). Reference interval s in healthy adults were determined for each method. When compared wit h AGE and CAE, CZE gave substantially higher reference values for the alpha(1)-globulin fraction. With CZE, within-run precision for fractio n quantitation was between 0.5% (albumin) and 4.1% (alpha(1)-globulin) . Total precision was between 0.8% (albumin) and 5.3% (beta-globulin). Data obtained from CZE showed poor linear correlation with results ob tained by AGE but good linear correlation with data from CAE. Analysis of serum from patients with inter alia inflammation, nephrotic syndro me, or polyclonal gammopathy showed that clinical information obtained by CZE is comparable with information obtained by AGE and CAE. We con clude that CZE offers a clinically reliable alternative to AGE and CAE and has the advantages of automation, higher precision, and faster tu rnaround time.