BACKGROUND: Biotin interference in biotin-streptavidin-based immunoassays is increasingly reported due to individuals taking biotin containing supplements and patients prescribed biotin. The reported prevalence of serum biotin threshold (> 10 µg/L) for interference in Roche Diagnostics immunoassay tests is 0.8% in Australia and 7.4% in the USA. There are, however, no such data in UK populations. In a service evaluation, we therefore studied the prevalence of biotin interference in routine serum samples received in our laboratory. METHODS: Biotin was measured in 524 anonymised surplus serum samples in which at least one immunoassay test had been requested. RESULTS: The median (95% confidence intervals) for serum biotin was 0.27 µg/L (95% confidence limits: 0.07-0.93 µg/L). Serum biotin was <10 µg/L in all samples, <5 ug/L in 522 (99.6%) and <1 µg/L in 513 (98.1%) samples. In 4 samples serum biotin was >2.5 µg/L (0.8%). CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate that the probability of biotin immunoassay interference in our patient population is extremely low, with the exception of assays reporting the lowest interference thresholds (e.g. Ortho Troponin I assay; threshold >2.5 µg/L).

背景：由于个体服用含生物素的补品和患者开了生物素，因此越来越多地报道了基于生物素-链霉亲和素的免疫测定中生物素的干扰。据报道，在罗氏诊断免疫测定中干扰的血清生物素阈值（> 10 µg / L）患病率在澳大利亚为0.8％，在美国为7.4％。但是，英国人口中没有此类数据。因此，在服务评估中，我们研究了在实验室中接受的常规血清样本中生物素干扰的发生率。方法：在524个匿名的多余血清样本中测量了生物素，其中至少需要进行一项免疫测定测试。结果：血清生物素的中位数（95％置信区间）为0.27 µg / L（95％置信限：0.07-0.93 µg / L）。所有样品中血清生物素均<10 µg / L，522中<5 ug / L（99。513（98.1％）个样品中，浓度为6％）和<1 µg / L。在4个样品中，血清生物素> 2.5 µg / L（0.8％）。结论：这些数据表明，除报告最低干扰阈值的测定（例如，Ortho Troponin I测定；阈值> 2.5 µg / L）外，我们患者群中生物素免疫测定干扰的可能性极低。