Falsely increased total serum protein due to dextran interference.

摘要

Dextran is used as a plasma expander, and it can interfere with measurement of total serum protein using the biuret assay in strong alkaline solution because it causes turbidity in serum via the formation of an insoluble complex of dextran with copper and tartrate (1). In a recent paper published in this journal, Delanghe et al. demonstrated that the relative total serum protein error due to the addition of dextran 70 was pronounced in various routine chemistry analyzers/reagents, such as the APE/Diagam, Dade, Merck Mega and Roche Integra systems, within the therapeutic range (6 g/L).