ELSEVIER Clinica Chimica Acta 225 (1994) 155-163 Short communication A rapid and sensitive sandwich A @ enzyme immunoassay for low concentration of albumin in human urine Gustav0 A. Chiabrando*, Fabian E. Zalazar, Mario A.J. Aldao, Miguel A. Vides Departamento de Bioquimica Clinica. Facultad de Ciencios Quimicas. Universidad National de Cdrdoba, C.C. 61, Sue. 16. 5016 Cdrdoba, Argentina (Received 17 May 1993; revision received 19 October 1993; accepted 25 October 1993) Key words: Sandwich enzyme immunoassay; Microalbuminuria; Affinity; Polyclonal antibody zyxwvutsrqpo 1. Introduction In type 1 diabetic patients, abnormalities in the kidney develop early on and are manifest as slight rises in urinary albumin (i.e. microalbuminuria), an indicator of diabetic nephropathy [ 1,2]. These abnormalities may be reversed by strict metabolic control 131. Therefore, it is important to detect microalbuminuria in diabetic patients by sensitive, precise and accurate methods [4]. Among these, sandwich enzyme immunoassays (EIAs) are time-consuming [5,6], whereas the faster competitive EIAs have a narrow working range and lower sensitivity [7-91. In the present work we describe a fast, highly sensitive sandwich EIA for urinary albumin, using purified polyclonal anti-human albumin antibodies selected for high relative affinity using human albumin-Nylon 616 chromatography. l Corresponding author. Abbreviation: EIA, enzyme immunoassay; PBS, phosphate-buffered saline (pH 7.2); PBS-T, 0.05% Tween 20 in PBS; SDS-PAGE, sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel ekctrophoresis. 0009-8981/94/$07.00 0 1994 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. SSDI 0009-8981(93)05776-B