Turbidimetric immunoassay of serum C-reactive protein

This rapid, reliable equilibrium turbidimetric immunoassay for serum C-reactive protein involves a potent monospecific antibody. Polyethylene glycol-6000 to accelerate and enhance the immunoprecipitation reaction, and Tween-20 surfactant to lower and stabilize the sample blank values. Grossly lipemic, icteric, or hemolyzed sera can be assayed. Values up to about 220 mg/L, for which the standard curve is linear, can be measured without sample dilution. Results by the proposed method and by radial immunodiffusion (r 0.989) or laser nephelometry (r = 0.957) correlated well. Analytical recovery averaged 101.3%. Within-, between-, and day-to-day CVs ranged from 0.9% to 3.5%, 0.8% to 5.5%, and 1.9% to 4.8%, respectively. The method is demonstrably superior to radial immunodiffusion or nephelometry. Any spectrophotometer that can measure turbidimetrically at 340 nm can be used.