Studies on a plasma cardiac glycoside assay based upon displacement of 3-H-ouabain from Na+-K+-ATPase

We tested an assay system introduced for plasma glycoside measurements, basing on the displacement of 3-H-ouabain from Na+-K+-ATPase by unlabeled glycoside. ATPase preparations from hog, cat and guinea pig were used. Displacements were performed using 20 cardiac glycosides, genins and derivatives with different cardiac activity. Most of the glycosides and derivatives do not induce a continuous 3-H-ouabain displacement from the ATPase, but a very steep increase of unbound 3-H-ouabain between 10-minus 7 and 2 times 10-minus 7 M. Therefore this assay system shows a satisfactory discrimination only in a short concentration range. This behavior and a relatively low sensitivity make the ATPase displacement assay problematic for clinical and pharmacokinetical plasma glycoside measurements.