Immunoturbidimetric determination of serum transferrin on a Kone Progress autoanalyser

The Kone Progress, a multiparametric discrete analyser, was used to determine serum transferrin with a kit supplied by Kone. Assays recommended by the French Society of Clinical Chemistry were performed in order to assess the suitability of the test. Repeatability was assessed using serum pools with low (L), medium (M) and high (H) concentrations of transferrin. The coeffcients of variation (CV) were 5.4, 3.2 and 2.0% respectively for 30 determinations (within-batch). Reproducibility on 15 consecutive days (between-batch) was also satisfactory (CV for L = 7.3%, M = 6.3% and H = 3.8%). There was no serum-to-serum contamination. Results correlated closely with those obtained using radial immunodiffusion (RID) (r = 0.942) and total iron-binding capacity (r = 0.954)for 90 determinations.Transferrin measurement by immunoturbidimetry on the Kone Progress emerges as a well-suited, rapid and inexpensive alternative to other time-consuming (RID) and sophisticated (laser immunonephelemeter) techniques.