Concordance between results of serum protein electrophoresis of pathological serum by cellulose acetate and capillary zone electrophoresis

Abstract

We investigated whether the electrophoretic patterns and clinical information derived from the five principal fractions of the Beckman Paragon capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) 2000 system are comparable to the results obtained by the cellulose acetate electrophoresis (CAE: Olympus AES 320) system. Concordance studies between the results obtained by CAE and CZE were performed on sera from pregnant women and from patients with nephrotic syndrome, acute and chronic inflammatory diseases, cirrhosis, monoclonal and polyclonal gammopathy, and bisalbuminemia. In all subjects except for the pregnant women, the results of CAE and CZE agreed 100% in terms of percent composition for albumin, and α₁- and α₂-globulins. Concordance for γ-globulin was 92-100% in terms of both percent composition and absolute concentration. Three discordant cases according to the results for β-globulin by CAE and CZE were found in patients with monoclonal gammopathy, who also showed discordant results for γ-globulin. An M-protein spike observed in either the β-globulin or γ-globulin fraction was 100% detected by both CAE and CZE analyses. In another six discordant cases for the β-globulin fraction observed in patients with cirrhosis and polyclonal gammopathy, part of the tail of the β-globulin fraction tended to be measured as γ-globulin by CAE. In three of the four bisalbuminemia cases, the double band of albumin observed by CZE was not detected by CAE. The results show that the electrophoretic patterns and clinical information derived from the five principal fractions of the Beckman Paragon CZE 2000 system are comparable to the results obtained by classical CAE.