Comparison of the first fully automated agarose gel electrophoresis system with the Capillarys electrophoresis method for the identification of monoclonal immunoglobulins

Serum protein electrophoresis (SPE), used to identify monoclonal gammopathies, is generally performed using the “gold standard” agarose gel as migration support (AGE). However, despite being semi-automated, this electrophoresis technique remains labour-intensive, meaning analytical performance and throughput are limited. Hence fully automated capillary electrophoresis (CE), which enables rapid separation, has been adapted for use in clinical laboratories within the last decade [1–5]. Any qualitative abnormalities suggestive of monoclonal immunoglobulin detected by either AGE or CE are further analysed by immunofixation electrophoresis (IFE), to confirm the presence of monoclonal bands and to identify the type of monoclonal component (MC) [6]. In order to increase throughput, a fully automated innovative AGE technique—Agarose Gel Easy Interlab G26 electrophoresis (Interlab, Rome, Italy)—has recently been launched, to be used with purpose-designed IFE kits. The aim of this study was to compare the AGE system with the Capillarys 2® CE equipment (Sebia, Evry, France) currently in use in our laboratory, to detect serum MCs subsequently confirmed, characterized and quantified by IFE on