A rapid method for myoglobin radioimmunoanalysis as a diagnostic tool in myocardial infarction

Stone et al. have elaborated a RIA-method for the determination of myoglobin, and found that increase of its concentration in serum is a reliable criterion for the diagnosis of myocardial infarction. However, the test took 24-28 h. Subsequently, the time of the analysis has been reduced to 5-6 h. Recently, a rapid method for the determination of myoglobin has been proposed based upon the use of antiserum immobilized on a powdered carrier. This method takes a little more than 1 h. The procedure according to Roxin et al. is fast due to its non-equilibrium character; after the incubation (30 min) the reaction of the antigen with the immobilized antibody still remains far from equilibrium. It is generally believed that non-equilibrium RIA procedures are less convenient than equilibrium ones for practical clinical applications. According to the RIA procedure proposed here, the time saving compared with the established methods is achieved by using relatively-high concentrations of radioactive myoglobin of moderate specific radioactivity. Under these conditions, the kinetic plateau is reached in 15-20 min. Hence, the total time of the analysis to obtain a standard curve and results for five unknown sera is 55 min. Therefore, the method becomes more useful as a guide in the treatment of myocardial infarction. (Auth.)