PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Brady, Sally
AU  - Bates, Katharine
AU  - Oddy, Susan
AU  - Jeon, You La
AU  - Pichayayothin, Tosapol
AU  - Tetteh, Ruby
AU  - Voong, Kieran
AU  - Harrington, Dominic J
TI  - Prevalence of elevated serum concentrations of biotin in patients from South East England, Korea, Singapore and Thailand and risk of immunoassay interference
AID  - 10.1136/jcp-2022-208733
DP  - 2023 Sep 01
TA  - Journal of Clinical Pathology
PG  - 637--641
VI  - 76
IP  - 9
4099  - http://jcp.bmj.com/content/76/9/637.short
4100  - http://jcp.bmj.com/content/76/9/637.full
SO  - J Clin Pathol2023 Sep 01; 76
AB  - Biotin interference in immunoassays using biotin-streptavidin binding technology is well recognised by clinical laboratories, though the prevalence of elevated biotin in patient populations is largely unknown. We determined serum biotin concentrations in 4385 patient samples received sequentially by 6 laboratories for routine immunoassay analysis in England, and Korea, Singapore and Thailand (3 countries within the Asia Pacific region, APAC). Samples were initially analysed using a research use-only immunoassay, with those identified as having potentially elevated biotin concentrations referred for definitive analysis by LC-MS/MS. The prevalence of elevated serum biotin was 0.4% and 0.6% for England and APAC, respectively (range 10.0–129.0 µg/L). Our data adds to a report from a different region of England and is the first for APAC. Laboratories and clinicians benefit from an awareness of the prevalence of elevated serum biotin, which coupled with an understanding of the threshold at which interference occurs, reduces clinical impact of analytical error.