Plasma proteins analysis:established systems that deliver clinical excellence

When only nephelometry will do
“Most Immunologists prefer nephelometry,” states Pinika Patel, senior biomedical scientist at St Helier Hospital, part of Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust. “You just need to look at the performance on EQA schemes to see that. The other advantage of nephelometry is the wide measuring range. We process all our routine plasma proteins on the BN II, including immunoglobulins and complement, and we rarely need to dilute any samples.”

The immunology department at St Helier Hospital has been a user of the BN II for over 10 years, processing over 25,000 tests per annum. “Although the push is to automate all high-volume assays onto routine chemistry systems, nephelometry demonstrates superior assay performance to turbidimetry, even for assays such as urine microalbumin,” states Philip Miall, principal clinical scientist in the Department of Clinical Biochemistry at the Royal London Hospital, part of Barts and The London NHS Trust. “We were one of the first adopters of the BN II and we are very happy with it.”

Julie Dance, senior specialist biomedical scientist at the Royal London Hospital, agrees: “There will always be challenging assays such as CSF immunoglobulins that need to perform with high sensitivity from small sample volumes. This performance can only be achieved through nephelometry.”