Overestimation of albumin in heparinized plasma

Monochromatic measurement of albumin by the bromcresol green method leads to overestimation of albumin in the presence of heparin. The interference seems to be caused by fibrinogen, which, in the presence of heparin, produces an almost constant increase of the measuring signal over the whole range of suitable wavelengths (550 to 700 nm). The albumin overestimation can be eliminated by using a bichromatic modification. An application of this procedure for the automated analyzer RAXT, RA-1000 (Bayer Diagnostik, Technicon) is presented. We recommend using only bichromatic methods for albumin determination with bromcresol green to avoid unexpected analytical artifacts.