Multicentre evaluation of the IL Densiscan

The electrophoretic separation of human proteins (for example serum proteins and lipoproteins) is a very popular test in clinical chemistry; separation is usually followed by a densitometric reading. In this paper the characteristics and performance of a new automatic densitometer are described (the IL Densiscan, Instrumentation Laboratory SpA, Italy), together with the results of an evaluation. It was not possible to follow any international guideline or recommendation-there is no accepted international standard for the description and evaluation of densitometers. Therefore the experiments were developed in comparison with other kinds of instrument; some general statements in the literature were also followed [1 and 2].