Inflammatory activity: capillary electrophoresis provides more information than erythrocyte sedimentation rate

A new automated multicapillary zone electrophoresis instrument with improved resolution buffer (Capillarys with HR buffer, SEBIA, Paris, France) for analysis of human plasma proteins was compared with erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR). ESR determinations have been performed for more than eighty years and it is still one of the most frequently used laboratory tests, mainly to monitor the inflammatory response and as a tumour marker.

We studied the relationships between ESR, capillary electrophoresis and nephelometric determination of fibrinogen and albumin in 503 consecutive patient samples. The samples were analyzed on the Capillarys. The albumin concentration from the nephelometric determination was used for quantification of the individual peaks in the capillary electrophoresis electropherogram.

We found no significant correlation between presence or size of M-components and ESR. There were moderate to strong correlations between ESR, fibrinogen and capillary electrophoretic determination of alpha1-antitrypsin, alpha1-acid glycoprotein or haptoglobin for the detection of acute phase response.

We suggest that ESR could be replaced by capillary electrophoresis for the assessment of inflammatory conditions and to detect M-components.