A direct radioimmunoassay for aldosterone in plasma.

This rapid radioimmunoassay for aldosterone is performed directly on 100 microL of unprocessed plasma, with 125I-labeled aldosterone as the labeled antigen. Our use of steroid-free plasma in preparing the standard curve resulted in an overestimate of aldosterone; this problem was overcome by adding to such plasma a mixture of other steroids to provide a constant steroid/aldosterone ratio. Over a wide range of aldosterone concentrations, results agreed well between the present assay and a routine method involving solvent extraction and paper chromatography (r = 0.85), and sensitivity (20 ng/L) and inter- (10.4%) and intra- (3.9%) assay CVs were better with the present assay. Our assay is especially useful for multiple samples and (or) when only small-volume samples are available.