Continuous-flow enzymic method evaluated for measurement of serum triglycerides with use of an improved lipase reagent.

We compared a modified enzymic continuous-flow method for serum triglycerides, in which a microbial lipase is used without protease, to an extraction-fluorometric method. Results (for total--blank) correlated well with those by the comparison procedure: enzymic = 1.002 fluorometric--14 mg/liter; r = 0.9968. Serum blanks were measured for each sample in both methods, and the concentration of free glycerol measured by the enzymic method was shown to be as much as 15 to 71% of the total triglyceride result in 7% of the samples analyzed. The dual-channel continuous-flow system provides automatic free-glycerol blank subtraction for the enzymic method.