Rapid Method for 2-Transferrin in Cerebrospinal Fluid Leakage Using an Automated Immunofixation Electrophoresis System

isoform of transferrin found only in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), ocular fluids, and perilymph. In aural, nasal, and wound drainages, this protein is an important marker of CSF leakage. Immunofixation electrophoresis (IFE) on agarose gels is a widely accepted qualitative technique for detection of small amounts of -2 trf, but disadvan-tages include lengthy transfer immunoblotting tech-niques or the requirement of at least 2 mL of sample. Methods: Using eight applications of unconcentrated sample on high-resolution agarose gels with an auto-mated electrophoresis system (Helena SPIFE 3000), we developed a rapid method for -2 trf. Evaluation studies included reproducibility of migration distance (mm), limit of detection, specificity, and concordance of results compared with those reported by a reference laboratory