[An immunoenzyme method of diagnosing familial hypercholesterolemia]

A new modification of enzyme immunoassay: enzyme-linked-immunoreceptor assay (ELIRA)--was used to study the activity of LDL-receptors on cultured fibroblasts from 10 patients with elevated plasma cholesterol levels, IHD, accelerated atherosclerosis and xanthomatosis. Four patients were found to have heterozygous form of familial hypercholesterolemia. We have also shown that the results of ELIRA were quantitatively similar to the data obtained by traditional radioisotopic method. This indicates that simple, rapid, inexpensive ELIRA can be used for diagnosis of FH.