Fraunberger P, Pfeiffer M, Cremer P, Holler E, Nagel D, Dehart I, Thein M, Walli A K, Seidel D
Institut für Klinische Chemie, Klinikum Grosshadern, LMU München, Munich, Germany.
Clin Chem Lab Med. 1998 Oct;36(10):797-801. doi: 10.1515/CCLM.1998.141.
Serum levels of Interleukin-6 (IL-6), a proinflammatory cytokine, are increased in early stages of inflammatory diseases such as infection and sepsis. Assay systems which permit its measurement within a few hours and as a single measurement have not been reported so far. We therefore evaluated a now commercially available automated method for IL-6 measurement on the Cobas Core immunological analyzer (Roche Diagnostic Systems) which enables single IL-6 measurement within about 1 hour. The automated assay correlates well with an established, manual microtiter plate assay (Biosource GmbH) which uses the same antibodies and reagents (r=0.98). Accuracy of the automated method was established by adding known amounts of IL-6 international reference preparation. Recovery of the international standard was in the range of 92104%. The automated assay had a precision of singletons below 6% and was linear up to 2800 pg/ml. This automated assay provides a suitable, convenient and time saving method for measurement of IL-6 serum levels in the routine clinical laboratory.
