Measurement of apolipoproteins B and A by radial immunodiffusion: methodological assessment and clinical applications.

The clinical evaluation of apolipoproteins is of interest in order to characterize the risk profile for ischemic heart disease both in normolipidemic and hyperlipidemic subjects. In the non-specialized and/or small practice clinical laboratory, the measurement of some apolipoproteins can be undertaken by simple methods of immunological analysis, among which radial immunodiffusion can be of interest due to its simplicity of use and because it does not require specific equipment. In this work several methodological questions concerning the measurement of plasma apolipoproteins B and A by radial immunodiffusion have been addressed; the results show that this method is particularly reliable for the apo B assay. Regression analysis between values obtained with radial immunodiffusion and radioimmunoassay was r = 0.972 for apo B and r = 0.782 for apo A. The recovery rate was above 90% for both apolipoproteins (93.8% for apo B and 99.5% for apo A). The inter and intraassay coefficients of variation were below 5%, and the detection limits were estimated as 9.6 mg/dl for apo A and 6.9 mg/dl for apo B. Neither the ingestion of a standard breakfast (500 Cal, 17 g fat, 120 mg cholesterol) 2 h prior to testing nor freezing the sample significantly affected the measurement of apolipoproteins B and A. Mean plasma concentrations of both apolipoproteins measured by radial immunodiffusion in normo and hyperlipidemic subjects are also presented.