Analytical Performance of the VIDAS® BRAHMS Procalcitonin Assay and Beckman Coulter Unicel® DXI Procalcitonin Assay in a Stat Laboratory.

Chen, Guan-Yu; Chen, Si-Yu; Er, Tze-Kiong

BACKGROUND The objective of this study was to compare the validity of two different procalcitonin assays. METHODS We collected 63 plasma samples from a stat laboratory. The plasma values of procalcitonin ranged from 0.01 to 98.1 µg/L when tested on the Access® platform and from < 0.05 to 98.5 µg/L when tested on the VIDAS® platform. The patients included 28 females ranging in age from 8 to 98 years of age (68 ± 22.6 years) and 35 males ranging in age from 35 to 90 years of age (69.2 ± 13.4 years). RESULTS In this study, the agreement between the two methods was good and Pearson's correlation coefficient (r) was 0.989 (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS In summary, a high correlation exists between quantitative procalcitonin measurements conducted with the VIDAS® BRAHMS and the Beckman Coulter Unicel® DXI assays. The VIDAS® BRAHMS procalcitonin assay is a reliable method for determining the levels of procalcitonin in plasma, but requires manual operation, hands-on technical expertise, and time. On the other hand, the Beckman Coulter Unicel® DXI assay is fully automated and may increase laboratory efficiency, and reduce the overall turnaround time.