Effects of a cyproterone-containing oral contraceptive on hormonal levels in polycystic ovarian disease.

The management of polycystic ovarian disease in women not desiring pregnancy is controversial. To avoid the progressive androgenic effects on peripheral target organs, some advocate the use of oral contraceptives. This study reports the effects of a preparation with 50 micrograms ethinyl estradiol and 2 mg cyproterone acetate on gonadotropins, prolactin, testosterone, sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), androstenedione, and calculated free testosterone index before and after six months of treatment. Gonadotropins, testosterone, and androstenedione levels decreased, prolactin did not change, and sex hormone binding globulin increased as the result of the treatment. This led to a net decrease in the calculated free testosterone.

Evaluation of Ciba Corning ACS:180 automated immunoassay system.

We evaluated the technical performance of the Ciba Corning ACS:180 automated immunoassay system for the following analytes: thyroid-stimulating hormone, free thyroxine, luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, prolactin, human chorionic gonadotropin, carcino-embryonic antigen, and prostate-specific antigen. The characteristics evaluated were: precision, carryover, linearity, lower limit of detection, analytical interferences, and comparison with other methods. Satisfactory results were obtained in the within-run and between-run precision studies. Neither sample nor reagent carryover was found for any assay. The range of linearity was acceptable. For some of the assays evaluated, the lower limit of detection was better than that claimed by the manufacturer. Correlation between ACS:180 methods and compared methods was adequate. We conclude that the ACS:180 offers good reliability, practicability, and performance capabilities.

In vitro effect of dipyrone on several peroxidase labelled immunoassays.

We studied the in vitro effect of dipyrone on the determination of free triiodothyronine (free T3), cortisol, progesterone, estradiol, carcinoembryonic antigen, human chorionic gonadotropin and alpha-fetoprotein measured with an immunoenzyme assay based on enhanced luminescence that uses peroxidase as label. We found significant interference from dipyrone (p < 0.01) in the determination of all the analytes mentioned: for progesterone and estradiol the interference was present at high doses of dipyrone; for free T3 and cortisol the minimum dipyrone concentration producing interference was 712 mumol/l and for carcinoembryonic antigen, human chorionic gonadotropin and alpha-fetoprotein 44 mumol/l. Dipyrone has an analytically and statistically significant interference effect on the determination of the mentioned analytes.

Analytical and clinical performance of an automated immunoassay system (Immulite) for estradiol in serum.

The analytical and clinical performance of a commercial automated immunoassay system (Immulite) for estradiol (E2) in serum was evaluated. The functional sensitivity for E2 was 0.07 nmol/l, and analytical imprecision (<13%, <9% and <7% at 0.22, 0.51 and 1.51 nmol/l, respectively) for concentrations above this detection limit met published analytical goals. The assay recovery was good and the assay was linear over a wide concentration range. No sample carryover was found, and interferences from common substances present in serum were observed only at very high concentrations. Most of samples from men and postmenopausal women showed E2 concentrations below the detection limit. Longitudinal estradiol profiles from 11 healthy menstruating women showed characteristic menstrual cycle patterns (12 samples per subject obtained during a 30-day period). Longitudinal studies on women during induction of ovulation showed that E2 concentrations are highly correlated with the total number of follicles. Our results demonstrate the reliability of this system for routine use in the clinical laboratory.

Technical and clinical performance of six sensitive immunoradiometric assays of thyrotropin in serum.

We evaluated the analytical and clinical performance of six commercial immunoradiometric assay kits for thyrotropin (TSH) in serum in 218 subjects, with and without thyroid dysfunction. Detection limits of the six kits were lower (from 0.07 to 0.25 milli-int. unit/L) than that of conventional TSH RIA (0.7 milli-int. unit/L). Precision was adequate over a wide range of concentrations, although interassay CVs at very low concentrations were good for only two kits (7.3% and 13.1%). Results by all the kits correlated to about the same degree with the TSH RIA (r = 0.92 to 0.98). All showed a positive correlation between both the basal and post-thyroliberin (TRH)-stimulation values for TSH (r = 0.78 to 0.88), and all showed similar euthyroid reference ranges for basal concentrations of TSH. With four of the six kits we could clearly distinguish most of the hyperthyroid patients from healthy euthyroids; however, basal and post-TRH TSH values were not sufficient to discriminate among groups of patients with different grades of thyroid hyperfunction.