Diagnosis of myocardial infarction based on lectin-induced erythrocyte agglutination: a feasibility study

Myocardial infarction (MI) is an acute life-threatening disease with a high incidence worldwide. Aim of this study was to test lectin-carbohydrate binding-induced red blood cell (RBC) agglutination as an innovative tool for fast, precise and cost effective diagnosis of MI. Five lectins (Ricinus communis agglutinin (RCA), Phaseolus vulgaris erythroagglutinin (PHA), Datura stramonium agglutinin (DSA), Artocarpus agglutinin (ArA), Triticum agglutinin (TA)) were tested for ability to differentiate between agglutination characteristics in patients with MI (n = 101) or angina pectoris without MI (AP) (n = 34) and healthy volunteers (HV) as control (n =68) . RBC agglutination was analyzed by light absorbance of a stirred RBC suspension in the green to red light spectrum in an agglutimeter (amtec, Leipzig, Germany) for 15 min after lectin addition. Mean cell count in aggregates was estimated from light absorbance by a mathematical model. Each lectin induced RBC agglutination. RCA led to the strongest RBC agglutination (~500 RBCs/aggregate), while the others induced substantially slower agglutination and lead to smaller aggregate sizes (5-150 RBCs/aggregate). For all analyzed lectins the lectin-induced RBC agglutination of MI or AP patients was generally higher than for HV. However, only PHA induced agglutination that clearly distinguished MI from HV. Variance analysis showed that aggregate size after 15 min. agglutination induced by PHA was significantly higher in the MI group (143 RBCs/ aggregate) than in the HV (29 RBC-s/aggregate, p = 0.000). We hypothesize that pathological changes during MI induce modification of the carbohydrate composition on the RBC membrane and thus modify RBC agglutination. Occurrence of carbohydrate-lectin binding sites on RBC membranes provides evidence about MI. Due to significant difference in the rate of agglutination between MI > HV the differentiation between these groups is possible based on PHA-induced RBC-agglutination. This novel assay could serve as a rapid, cost effective valuable new tool for diagnosis of MI.

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