Evaluation of capillary zone electrophoresis assessment of beta proteins.

OBJECTIVE: Evaluate capillary zone electrophoresis for analyzing beta proteins for concentrations of transferrin and complement. DESIGN: Thirty normal sera were used to establish expected ranges for these proteins by re-gating on the specific peaks from the original histograms. A total of 61 sera with elevated beta proteins were evaluated by this method. An additional 50 sera with an acute phase reaction were evaluated. SETTING: All tests were done at Baptist Regional Laboratories on a Beckman CZE/1000 2000 instrument. PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS: Sera were taken from excess sera used for clinical testing. Thirty normal serum donors were tested. The 61 sera with elevated beta proteins were evaluated on a prospective basis following clinical testing. The 50 sera with acute phase patterns were evaluated retrospectively following clinical testing. INTERVENTION: None RESULTS: Among the 61 sera with increased beta protein, 34 (56%) had elevated transferrin but 57 (93%) had elevated complement levels. In the 50 sera from the acute phase reactant group, 24 sera had elevated complement. OUTCOME: The study showed that capillary zone electrophoresis could effectively be used to evaluate specific levels of transferrin and complement without further testing. CONCLUSIONS: These findings show that with this method, transferrin and complement can be quantitatively measured without further analysis and that the majority of beta protein increases are due to elevated complement levels in our population.