DETERMINATION OF SERUM ACETAMINOPHEN IN EMERGENCY TOXICOLOGY - EVALUATION OF NEWER METHODS - ABBOTT TDX AND 2ND DERIVATIVE ULTRAVIOLET SPECTROPHOTOMETRY

Newer methods for the determination of serum acetaminophen in emergency toxicology, the Abbott TDx immunoassay and second derivative ultraviolet spectrophotometry, were evaluated and compared to a high pressure liquid chromatographic procedure. The Abbott TDx immunoassay within-run and day to day precision yielded coefficients of variance below 2.7% and 7.2% respectively: Abbott TDx immunoassay results correlated well with those of high pressure liquid chromatographic in patient serums 15.0 to 333 mg/L acetaminophen; r2 = 0.954, n = 40. The Abbott TDx immunoassay assay was rapid, easy to perform, free of interferences from other drugs and exhibited no carryover from previous samples. The within run precision of the second derivative ultraviolet spectrophotometry method yielded coefficients of variance of less than 7.0%. Second derivative ultraviolet spectrophotometry results demonstrated good correlation with high pressure liquid chromatographic results in patient sera; r2 = 0.923, n = 40; however, performance deteriorated below 50.0 mg/L acetaminophen. Spectral interferences were noted at high concentrations of some drugs.