Increased serum protein in an elderly debilitated woman.

An 80-year-old female patient presented in poor general condition, drowsy but responding to verbal commands. Medications given in the emergency room included cefotaxim, ranitidine, and vitamin K. Blood was sent for routine testing; serum total protein was 13.6 g/dL by the biuret method (reference interval, 6.1–7.9 g/dL). On visual inspection, the reaction mixture was brown instead of the usual purple (Fig. 1).