Improved sensitivity of capillary electrophoresis for detection of bisalbuminemia.

ESR methods. The bias between TEST-1 and the manual Westergren method was 22.7 mm/h (agreement limits, 233 to 8 mm/h). Concerning reproducibility, the mean interassay CV was 7.9%. The ESR values for samples stored for up to 24 h were, on average, 4% lower than the initial values. However, after storage for 48 h, ESR values were, on average, 24% lower than the initial values. Therefore, we consider the maximum permissible storage time to be 24 h. In conclusion, the Test-1 offers a fast determination of the ESR with acceptable intraassay variability and good correlation with traditional Westergren methods. The bias and agreement limits are comparable to those found by others (6, 7). The use of samples with EDTA as anticoagulant instead of sodium citrate has two possible advantages: the avoidance of a dilution step and consequent analytical errors, and the use of one sample for multiple hematologic analyses (e.g., ESR and complete blood count) (2 ).