New System for Automated Extraction and Simultaneous Determination of Serum Cholesterol and Triglycerides.

摘要

A system is described for the total automation of serum lipid extraction and simultaneous determination of cholesterol and triglycerides using continuous flow equipment. The system uses 100 microliters of serum and processes the samples at the rate of 20 per hour. The sampling rate may be increased with slight loss in precision. The time elapsed from sample pickup to recorder readout is approximately 25 minutes. The system uses established colorimetric reactions, and the values obtained are in agreement with the ranges currently reported in the literature. The accuracy of the system, compared to values obtained with a manual extraction procedure, shows correlation value for the two methods of 0.98 for cholesterol and 0.99 for triglycerides. The day-to-day precision of the system has a 1.8% relative standard deviation (RSD) for cholesterol (1 SD = 0.034 g/liter) and a 3.4% RSD for triglycerides (1 SD = 0.037 g/liter). The small sample volume, precision, accuracy, comparative economy of reagents, and rapid analysis make this system particularly suitable for multiphasic screening, pediatrics, and small animal research. (Author)