Department of Nuclear Medicine and Thyroid Centre, Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland, Bellinzona, Switzerland.
Head Neck. 2011 Jan;33(1):95-7. doi: 10.1002/hed.21405.
The purpose of our study was to examine the prevalence of significant heterophilic antibody (HAb) interferences in serum calcitonin measurement in a large cohort of patients with thyroid nodules.
Enrolled in the study were 378 patients with thyroid nodules shown not to have medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) after extensive diagnostic workup. Serum calcitonin measurement was performed before and after incubating each serum sample in heterophilic-blocking tubes (HBTs) and the differences were calculated. Samples showing an absolute percentage difference greater than 3 SD from the mean percentage difference were considered as affected by heterophilic antibody interference.
Five of 378 patients (1.3%) with HAb interferences were identified, 4 with clinically relevant false-positive calcitonin results.
A false-positive calcitonin result due to HAb interference occurs more frequently than MTC (1.3% vs 0%) in our patient series. A serum pretreatment in HBTs should be considered when increased serum calcitonin levels are found in a patient with a thyroid nodule to prevent unwarranted investigations or therapies.
我们的研究目的是在一个大量甲状腺结节患者的队列中，检测血清降钙素检测中显著异嗜性抗体 (HAb) 干扰的流行率。
本研究纳入了 378 名甲状腺结节患者，这些患者经过广泛的诊断性检查后未被诊断为甲状腺髓样癌 (MTC)。在异嗜性阻断管 (HBT) 中孵育每个血清样本之前和之后进行血清降钙素测量，并计算差异。与平均百分比差异的绝对百分比差异大于 3 个标准差的样本被认为受到异嗜性抗体干扰的影响。
在 378 名患者中，发现有 5 名（1.3%）存在 HAb 干扰，其中 4 名患者的降钙素结果存在临床相关的假阳性。
在我们的患者系列中，由于 HAb 干扰导致的假阳性降钙素结果比 MTC（1.3%比 0%）更常见。当甲状腺结节患者的血清降钙素水平升高时，应考虑在 HBT 中进行血清预处理，以防止不必要的检查或治疗。
