Electrochemiluminescent measurement of human serum albumin concentration in dialysate

Abstract

Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in the mass clearance performance of dialyzers, making it possible to remove pathogenic substances of ever higher molecular weight. A concomitant problem has arisen, however, in terms of the increased leakage of useful substances, resulting in the need for development of systems that provide continuous monitoring of such useful substances in the dialysate. The present study has as its objective the quantitative analysis of human serum albumin (HSA), which is typical of substances subject to such leakage. The method used is an immunoassay technique developed by Yoshimi et al. based on electrochemiluminescence (ECL). This technique makes use of the fact the ECL intensity of luminol used as an antibody label varies in accordance with the antigen-antibody reaction. When the HSA concentration in phosphate-buffered aqueous solution and in dialysate was measured using luminol-labeled anti-HSA, the ECL intensity was found to increase with HSA concentration, and a good dependence was obtained. The HSA in the discharged dialysate during hemodialysis treatments was then measured, the results obtained were compared with those obtained by latex agglutination assay, and a good correlation was obtained. HSA can be readily measured by the electrochemiluminescent technique.