A SPECIFIC, SENSITIVE, AND ONE-STEP EXTRACTION RADIOIMMUNOASSAY OF TESTOSTERONE FOR CLINICAL DIAGNOSIS

Testosterone was measured using antibodies raised against testosterone II B-carboxymethyl ether bovine serum albmin (T-IIB-CME-BSA) and testosterone 3- O-carboxymethyl oxime-BSA as immunogen. The antibody produced in this study exhibits minimal cross reactivity with the structurally related steroids specially 5 dihydrotestosterone (5 DHD. This allows to ommit the clean up step and measure testosterone in female serum samples accurately with a high sensitivity, precision, and specificity. The coefficent of variation (CY), standard deviation (SD) and standard error of mean (SE) were all in acceptable ranges. Antibody-bound and free steroids were separated by addition of dextran coated charcoal. The method was applied to a set of clinical samples, the results of which are discussed in this communication. The assay was compared with the available imported kits using 125 I as tracer. The correlation coefficient obtained is calcualted to be r= 0.96, showing that the results obtained by these two methods are fully comparable and the assay may be replaced with the similar preparations imported from abroad.