INSULIN

This insulin assay is performed using a 2-site electrochemiluminescent immunoassay on the Roche automated platform.1 This test could be effectively used for those patients not receiving exogenous insulin or those receiving unmodified human insulin. Test 004333, Insulin is highly specific for human insulin, as shown in the table below. This test does not react, for instance, with several of the insulin analogs used to treat diabetes as indicated in Table 1 below. The efficacy of each test depends on the patient treatment and goal of the ordering physician. It is important that the physician ordering and interpreting the results understands the specificity of the test. Table 1: Cross reactivity to insulin analogs1-3 • Human insulin: 100% • Insulin aspart: <1% • Insulin glargine: <1% • Insulin lispro: <1% • Insulin glulisine: <1% • Insulin detemir: <1% Notes: • Circulating antibodies to insulin, both autoantibodies and antibodies to therapeutic insulin, can interfere with the immunoassays for insulin.4,5 • As with all tests containing monoclonal mouse antibodies, erroneous findings may be obtained from samples taken from patients who have been treated with monoclonal mouse antibodies or who have received them for diagnostic purposes.1 In rare cases, interference due to extremely high titers of antibodies to streptavidin and ruthenium can occur.1 The test contains additives that minimize these effects.