26 year old presented to her GP in 1999 with mild hirsuitism. Prolactin was
1087 mu/l, since then she has been rechecked on 7 occasions and levels
varied form 658 -1125. We use Bayer Centaur, which supposedly does not
measure macroprolactin to a major extent as do other assays. We sent some of
a recent sample to a laboratory who use Delfia, and they got a total of 563
for the sample we got 1185, and post PEG precipitation they got 250 mu/l. If
the Delfia had got a higher result than our method, that would have been
expected, and the drop post PEG ppt would have confirmed macroprolactin. Can
anyone explain the odd result we got? We are going to outrule autoantibodies
using herterophilic blocker, has anyone any interest in doing chromatography
on a relatively small sample to check which forms of prolactin are in the
sample?
Dr Helen Grimes
Department of Clinical Biochemistry
University College Hospital
Galway
Ireland
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