Conclusion
HEF-ICA enabled the measurement of a wide range of CRP concentrations without the hook effect, and was suitable for point-of-care testing with fingertip blood sampling, as only a minute sample volume (2.5 µL) was required.
Methods
In this study, we developed a hook effect-free immunochromatographic assay (HEF-ICA) to detect CRP over a wide concentration range. The hook effect
Results
The signal intensity of HEF-ICA was saturated at high CRP concentrations, without decreasing. The titration curve of HEF-ICA was adjusted with the Hill equation, and HEF-ICA was performed with the following parameters: limit of detection, 43 ng mL-1; dynamic range, 119 ng mL-1 to 100 µg mL-1. The accuracy of the newly developed assay was evaluated using 33 clinical samples via comparison with a clinical chemistry analyzer.