Back to Search Start Over

Performance Comparison of Capillary and Agarose Gel Electrophoresis for the Identification and Characterization of Monoclonal Immunoglobulins

Authors :
Monte S. Willis
Stephanie P. Mathews
John F. Chapman
Christopher R. McCudden
David G. Grenache
Catherine A. Hammett-Stabler
Shirley A. Hainsworth
Source :
American Journal of Clinical Pathology. 129:451-458
Publication Year :
2008
Publisher :
Oxford University Press (OUP), 2008.

Abstract

The objective of this study was to compare gel- and capillary-based serum protein electrophoresis methods to identify and characterize monoclonal immunoglobulins (M proteins). Five reviewers interpreted 149 consecutively ordered serum specimens following agarose gel electrophoresis (AGE), capillary electrophoresis (CE), immunofixation electrophoresis (IFE), and subtraction immunotyping (IT). As a screening test for detecting M proteins, AGE and CE displayed similar sensitivity (91% and 92%, respectively). CE was less specific (74%) than AGE (81%). An analysis of interinterpreter agreement revealed that interpretations were more consistent using gel-based methods than capillary-based methods, with 80% of the gel interpretations being in complete (5/5) agreement compared with 67% of the capillary interpretations. After implementing the capillary-based methods, the number of tests per reportable result increased (from 1.58 to 1.73). CE is an analytically suitable alternative to AGE, but laboratories implementing it will need to continue IFE testing to characterize all M proteins detected by CE.

Details

ISSN :
19437722 and 00029173
Volume :
129
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
American Journal of Clinical Pathology
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....fd9080ad8e84446e73fab8b7e0b915d4
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1309/6kt8n49brnvvvbt1