Use of frozen sera for FT4 standardization: investigation by equilibrium dialysis combined with isotope dilution-mass spectrometry and immunoassay.

BACKGROUND Serum-free thyroxine (FT4) testing is recommended for diagnosis or monitoring of thyroid dysfunction, particularly in cases of hormone binding abnormalities. However, the poor intermethod agreement among commercial FT4 assays suggests a need for standardization with a hierarchically higher measurement procedure. To that purpose, we applied equilibrium dialysis (ED) in combination with isotope dilution-liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (ID-LC-tandem MS). METHODS After ED, we collected dialysate into tubes containing [13C6]-T4 for ID and [13C9]-T4 as carrier, purified the samples by solid-phase extraction, and analyzed them with LC/tandem MS. We evaluated the procedure's analytical performance and tested its suitability for measurement of hypo-, eu-, and hyperthyroid serum FT4 concentrations. We conducted a pilot method comparison study with 3 commercial assays to investigate whether frozen sera could be used for the purpose of FT4 standardization. RESULTS The within-run, between-run, and total CVs (inclusive ED) were 3.7%, 4.2%, and 5.6%, respectively (17.7 pmol/L; n = 20). The mean accuracy, estimated from recovery experiments with dialysate and dialysis buffer supplemented at 8.7, 18.7, and 33.5 pmol/L, and from analysis of certified sera gravimetrically diluted to 9.8, 19.2, and 34.8 pmol/L, was 98.0% to 102.8%. The procedure's limit of detection and limit of quantification were 0.5 and 1.3 pmol/L, respectively. The method comparison demonstrated the suitability of the selected sera for standardization of FT4 assays and confirmed the lack of assay comparability. CONCLUSIONS We demonstrated that the described ED-ID-LC/tandem MS procedure and the selected type of sera qualify for standardization of FT4 measurements.