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Commercial radioimmunoassay for beta subunit of human chorionic gonadotropin: Falsely positive determinations due to elevated serum luteinizing hormone
Author(s) -
Fowler Jackson E.,
Platoff Gennady E.,
Kubrock Charles A.,
Stutzman Ray E.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0142(19820101)49:1<136::aid-cncr2820490126>3.0.co;2-s
Subject(s) - endocrinology , luteinizing hormone , medicine , human chorionic gonadotropin , radioimmunoassay , gonadotropin , follicle stimulating hormone , hormone , leydig cell
Abstract Among 17 men who had received seemingly curative treatment for unilateral non‐seminomatous germ cell tumors for the testis and who had consistently normal serum human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) levels at a reference laboratory, 7 (41%) had at least one falsely positive commercial serum HCG determination. To investigate the cause of these falsely positive determinations the authors measured the cross reactivity of luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) standards in the commercial HCG assay, and studied the relationships between commercial HCG levels and serum LH levels, serum FSH levels and gonadal status in men with and without normal gonadal function. The falsely positive HCG determinations appeared to be due to elevated serum LH levels and cross reactivity of LH in the commercial HCG assay because: 1) there was substantial cross reactivity of the LH standards in the commercial assay, 2) the serum LH was elevated in four of six men with solitary testes, 3) there was a striking correlation between elevated serum LH levels and falsely elevated commercial HCG levels in ten men with solitary or absent testes, and 4) there were no falsely positive HCG determinations in 13 normal men but there were falsely positive HCG determinations in seven of ten anorchid men.