Amplified androstenedione enzymeimmunoassay for the diagnosis of cryptorchidism in the male horse: comparison with testosterone and estrone sulphate methods.

An amplified enzymeimmunoassay (EIA) was validated for androstenedione in the serum of male horses. We will use the assay as a tool for the diagnosis of equine cryptorchidism. We will compare androstenedione EIA to the currently used methods (testosterone and estrone sulphate determinations). The study was conducted on 115 horses of pure Spanish and Arabian breeds, that included 30 geldings, 60 bilateral cryptorchids and 25 stallions. Androstenedione standard curve covered a range between 0 and 1 ng per well. Low detection limit was 1.54 pg/ml. Intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation (CV%) were <8.2 and <9.3, respectively (n=10). Recovery rate of known androstenedione concentrations averaged from 96.62+/-2.69 to 97.63+/-1.87%. Androstenedione mean+/-S.E. serum concentrations were 10.52+/-1.36 ng/ml in stallions (n=25), 0.51+/-0.04 ng/ml in cryptorchids (n=60), and 0.03+/-0.01 ng/ml in geldings (n=30). Diagnostic validation parameters in basal samples showed for estrone sulphate the lower positive predictive value (0.85) with the higher number of false positives, and lower specificity (0.84). Testosterone showed the higher number of false negatives with a negative predictive value of 0.85, and lower sensitivity (0.85). Among the three hormones evaluated, androstenedione presented the best results with the smaller number of horses diagnosed as false positives (0.93) or negatives (0.91). This technique also resulted in higher sensitivity, specificity and efficiency over the other two methods assayed. We concluded that our amplified EIA is a highly sensitive and specific assay that provides a rapid, simple, and inexpensive alternative to other methods.