Plasma prednisolone concentrations: comparison of radioimmunoassay and competitive protein binding assay

A comparison was made between plasma concentrations of prednisolone measured by both competitive protein binding radioassay (CPB) and radioimmunoassay (RIA) and, with each assay, using a calibration curve generated from individual subject data and from pooling the individual calibration curva data. The plasma samples were obtained from six normal adult male volunteers who were pretreated with dexamethasone to suppress endogenous hydrocortisone and who then ingested 10 mg of prednisolone. Both the standard curve data and the plasma concentrations were evaluated statistically. It was shown that the CPB method has considerably greater precision than the RIA method and could be employed in bioavailability and pharmacokinetic studies of both prednisolone and prednisone. It was also shown that corticosteroid binding globulin cross-reacts considerably less with the major metabolite of prednisolone, 20beta-dihydroprednisolone, than the particular antiserum used in the RIA.