Evaluation of point-of-care testing of C-reactive protein in forensic autopsy cases

We assessed the technical performance and robustness of the point-of-care test for C-reactive protein (CRP) NycoCard CRP for use in forensic autopsy cases. The results of 17 of 39 cadaver blood samples that had CRP in the range effectively measured by the NycoCard (5-120mg/l) correlated well (r=0.99) with those of quantitative latex agglutination immunoassay (turbidimetry), and the out-of-range NycoCard results were fully consistent with those obtained by turbidimetry. For the ten sera whose CRP >120mg/l according to NycoCard, a significant correlation (r=0.98) was observed between values multiplied by the dilution ratio and those of turbidimetry. No significant differences were observed after a freeze-thaw procedure. In addition, CRP results using recombinant human CRP spiked with hemoglobin up to 80g/l were not significantly different from the unspiked results in PBS. The test allows reliable and cost-effective on-site measurement of CRP from a small volume of serum (5μl) with simple equipment. This semi-quantification method of CRP should be useful for diagnosis during autopsy.