An automated biotin-streptavidin procedure for progesterone evaluation

An automated biotin-streptavidin procedure for measuring progesterone in serum is described. The method is linear up to 98.3 nmol/L and the calibration curve is stable for at least 14 days. The lower limit of progesterone detection is 0.70 nmol/L. Although serum is the preferred specimen, progesterone levels can be measured in EDTA, heparin, or citrated plasma. There is no interference from samples with monoclonal proteins or from hemoglobin and bilirubin at concentrations of 9.62 g/L and 899 mumol/L, respectively. Lipemic samples will lower the progesterone levels. Total imprecision of the method in the range of 19-80.4 nmol/L gave CVs between 4.6 and 7.3%. Progesterone values obtained with this biotin-streptavidin procedure agreed with those obtained by the DPC RIA assay (r = 0.991). The biotin-streptavidin procedure can be used as an alternative to RIA for measurement of progesterone.