Performance evaluation of a new chemiluminescent cardiac troponin I assay.

Cardiac troponin I is a marker for diagnosis of myocardial damage. Several immunoassays are currently available for determination of concentrations of troponin I in serum. We evaluated a chemiluminescent assay for troponin I using ACS:180 automated analyzer (Bayer Diagnostics). We compared our results with two other immunoassays using the OPUS Magnum (OPUS troponin I assay, Dade Behring) and AxSYM (microparticle enzyme immunoassay, Abbott) analyzers. The within-run and between-run CVs were less than 5% for all three levels of controls. The chemiluminescent assay for troponin I was linear up to a serum troponin I concentration of 50 ng/mL and the detection limit was 0.1 ng/mL of troponin. A good correlation between troponin I concentration measured by the chemiluminescent assay (y axis) and the microparticle enzyme immunoassay (MEIA) (x axis) was observed, although the concentrations of troponin I in individual specimens were approximately four times higher, when measured by the MEIA assay, than those measured by chemiluminescent assay. The correlation coefficient was 0.98 with the regression equation y = 0.22x + 1.125. We also observed a good correlation in troponin I concentrations obtained by the chemiluminescent assay (y axis) and OPUS troponin I assay (x axis). The correlation coefficient was 0.96 and the regression equation was y = 0.79x - 0.52. The correlation coefficient was 0.93 when we compared troponin I concentrations obtained by the OPUS assay (x axis) with the corresponding concentrations obtained by the MEIA assay (y axis). The corresponding regression equation was y = 0.25x + 3.5. We conclude that the chemiluminescent troponin I assay showed good analytical performance. Copyright 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.