The dry chemistry blood analyzer SPOTCHEM (TM) SP-4410. Investigations on its usefulness for laboratory diagnosis of cattle

The usefulness of the dry-chemistry blood analyzer, SPOTCHEM(TM) SP-4410, f or analysis of bovine blood chemistry was studied in a veterinary clinic. The control serum Precipath(R)-U, Boehringer-Mannheim, was used to measure precision within each run and between days. The coefficients of variation ( CV) ranged between 1.54 % and 4.86 %, with the exception of albumin and cre atine phosphokinase showing a CV of 6.3 % and 10.03 % for between-day preci sion. For methodological comparison bovine serum samples were assayed with both t he SPOTCHEM(TM) SP-4410 and the automated blood analyzer HITACHI 705. which served as a wet-chemistry reference system. The following analytes were me asured: glucose, urea, creatinine, total protein, albumin, total bilirubin and the enzymes AST, CPK and gamma -GT. For hemoglobin, which was measured in heparinized whole blood, the CO oximeter 855, CIBA-CORNING, was used as a reference system. The comparative analysis showed very good correlation i n eight of ten parameters and their correlation coefficients (r) ranged bet ween 0.962 and 0.998. Only the correlation coefficients of the analysis of total bilirubin (r = 0.903) and albumin (r = 0.771) were less satisfactory. The recovery test was carried out with the two parameters glucose and blood urea. The recovery of glucose was 93.7 % and of urea 98.8 %. The SPOTCHEM(TM) SP-4410 is easy to use and proved to be reliable and accur ate, and therefore it seems to be useful for analysis of bovine blood sampl es.