Enzymic serum cholesterol measurement with a basic autoanalyzer and Du Pont aca method.

I compared enzymic methods for total serum cholesterol as used with discrete (Du Pont aca and reagent packs) and continuous-flow (Boehringer Mannheim reagents and the Technicon AuotAnalyzer I) analysis of normal, icteric, and lipemic sera. The regression equation for 24 clear, non-icteric sera was: y (continuous flow) = 0.944x (aca) + 10.69; r = 0.971, Syx +/- 53.7 mg of cholesterol per liter. The continuous-flow system indicated no significant interference when as much as 350 mg of bilirubin was added per liter. Results with the aca method indicated a decrease in apparent cholesterol of about 5 mg/liter per milligram of added bilirubin. Serial diluting of lipemic sera resulted in falsely higher values with the aca method but no clinically significant effect on results with the AutoAnalyzer procedure. Apparent cholesterol as measured with the aca became proportionately greater than AutoAnalyzer values with increasing serum triglyceride concentration.