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Thromb Haemost 1987; 57(01): 112-117
DOI: 10.1055/s-0038-1651074
International Committee Communications
Schattauer GmbH Stuttgart

An International Collaborative Study on the Performance of Protein C Antigen Assays

Report of the ICTH Subcommittee on Protein C
R M Bertina
The Hemostasis and Thrombosis Research Unit, University Hospital, Leiden, The Netherlands
› Author Affiliations
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Publication History

Received 05 November 1986

Accepted 05 November 1986

Publication Date:
06 July 2018 (online)

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Summary

An international collaborative study was undertaken to evaluate the performance and specificity of protein C antigen (PC) assays. Thirteen lyophilized plasma samples were distributed among 17 laboratories and analysed with 24 methods. No statistically significant results were obtained with the different methods in plasmas containing only the protein C zymogen. ELISA’s, RIA’s and IRMA’s were found to be more sensitive than the electro-immunoassay. In plasmas of patients on oral anticoagulant treatment ELISA methods tend to give lower PC antigen levels than the electro-immunoassay. Complexes between activated protein C (APC) and the protein C inhibitor (PCI), when present in plasma together with PC zymogen, are detected with 100% efficiency in the electro-immunoassay, with 50% efficiency in the ELISA, and with <10% efficiency in the RIA or in assays using monoclonal antibodies against PC.

Mean coefficient of variation was calculated to be 22%, and could be reduced - especially in case of the ELISA by normalisation. Within laboratory variation was calculated to be 11.7% and between laboratory variation 17.8%.

Keywords

Protein C antigen assay
 

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