Evaluation of a sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the measurement of serum heart fatty acid-binding protein

Abstract

Background: We evaluated the sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) MARKIT®-M for the determination of heart fatty-acid-binding protein (H-FABP). Results and Conclusions: The between-run coefficient of variation of this assay was <3·9 and it showed good correlation with a previously established ELISA method. The upper reference limit in 30 healthy individuals was 6·1 μg/L. Admission serum H-FABP was evaluated against myoglobin in 41 patients with suspected myocardial infarction (onset of symptoms ≤ 5 h). H-FABP showed the same diagnostic efficiency as myoglobin [area (standard error) under the receiver operating characteristic curve: 0·798 (0·079) for H-FABP, 0·771 (0·085) for myoglobin, P = 0·55]. However, using the upper reference limit as decision cut-off, the sensitivity for H-FABP [91%; 95% confidence interval (CI): 76-98%] was significantly ( P = 0·019) higher than that of myoglobin (65%; 95% CI: 47-80%).