Enzyme immunoassay for specific determination of the synthetic estrogen, ethynyl estradiol, in plasma.

In this enzyme immunoassay for ethynyl estradiol, a conjugate of the 3-(O-carboxymethyl)ether with horseradish peroxidase is used as the label and a conjugate of the 6-(O-carboxymethyl)oxime with bovine serum albumin as the immunogen. A solid-phase antibody procedure is used in separating antibody-bound and free steroid. The lower limit of sensitivity of the assay is 2 pg per assay tube. Interference by synthetic progestagens was minimized by extracting the sample with an anti-estrogen serum before assay. Results obtained with a comparison radioimmunoassay and this procedure agreed well (r greater than 0.98).