Measurement of antitryptic activity of serum with a centrifugal analyzer.

The Selected Method [Clin. Chem. 20, 396 (1974)] for the enzymatic assay of alpha1-antitrypsin in serum has been adapted for use with the E.N.I.-GEMSAEC. With alpha-N-benzoyl-D,L-arginine-p-nitroanilide as substrate, the difference between the tryptic activity measured with and without addition of serum in the same run has been used to calculate the trypsin-inhibitory capacity. The rate of increase in absorbance at 400 nm of the p-nitroanilide formed, has been evaluated during a reaction time of 140 s. Results correlated well (r = 0.986) for 54 human sera analyzed as described here and by the Selected Method. The adaptation on GEMSAEC can be used in detecting alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency in the newborn.