Adaptation of an alkaline phosphatase method for automatic colorimetric analysis.

LTHOUGH THE LEVEL of circulating serum enzyme activity may not in many instances represent occurrences at the cellular level, there has been a consistent increase in the number of requests for clinical serum enzyme determinations. There has also been an increase in the number of types of enzyme activity requested, making it imperative for clinical chemistry laboratories to employ the most efficient methods available consistent with accuracy. Recently two modifications of an alkaline phosphatase procedure have been presented (2, 3) that, by dispensing with the need for protein precipitation, have allowed more rapid determinations of this enzyme to be made in the laboratory. The material to be presented concerns the further adaptation of these modifications to allow the test to be accomplished by means of a device designed for automatic colorimetric analysis (4). The accuracy of the manual and automated technics will be discussed.