| Sub-title | |
| Authors | A Sciortino G Buhagiar |
| Abstract | Background: The average incidence of macroprolactinaemia i.e. sustained hyperprolactinaemia due to high circulating levels of big-big prolactin (BB-PRL) is reported to be around 25%. Macroprolactinaemia can be a cause of asymptomatic hyperprolactinaemia in the general healthy population with incidences of < 3% being reported. The reference method of BB-PRL estimation is by gas filtration chromatography (GFC). However, calculation of % recoveries after precipitation of BB-PRL by Polyethylene Glycol (PEG) has been reported to be a cheaper and simpler alternative for BB-PRL estimation. Some studies though, have reported that this technique cannot be used on all immunoassay analysers due to interference by the PEG itself. Study: The PEG precipitation technique on the Immulite 2000 analyser was evaluated by comparison of results to GFC (performed at the Laboratoire Marcel Mrieux, Lyons, France). The incidence of macroprolactinaemia in the general healthy and hyperprolactinaemia Maltese patients was then determined. Results: In all samples with % recoveries < 40%, BB-PRL made up > 20% of the total circulating prolactin. In those samples with % recoveries > 50%, BB-PRL made up < 18% of the circulating prolactin. A grey area for those samples, whose recoveries fall between 40.1-50% was found. These samples must be submitted to GFC for analysis. The incidence of macroprolactinaemia was found to be 1.9% and 27.2% in the Maltese healthy and hyperprolactinaemic populations respectively. Conclusion: The PEG precipitation technique was found to be suitable for macroprolactinaemia identification on the Immulite 2000 analyser. The incidence of macroprolactinaemia in hyperprolactinaemic patients is sufficiently high to warrant its measurement in asymptomatic patients, before proceeding to expensive imaging techniques. |
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| Journal | Malta Medical Journal |
| Volume | Volume 15 (suppl) |
| Pages | - |
| Date | |
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| Key words | incidence, macroprolactinaemia, hyperprolactiaemia, prolactin, endocrinology |