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Differences between capillary and venous blood values of alpha-fetoprotein in healthy adults

Background: Alpha-fetoprotein (α1-fetoprotein, AFP) was initially found in the human fetus, fetal yolk sac, liver and intestine. Except benign conditions (pregnancy, infancy, hepatic diseases, hereditary disorders) elevated AFP level is considered as abnormal in adults. It’s used for screening or monitoring hepatocellular carcinoma, yolk sac tumor, some other tumors and most commonly used tumor marker in pediatric oncology. A review of available literature showed that there have been no similar research results that could involve differences of capillary and venous samples for AFP. Materials and methods: From all 43 healthy subjects (27 female and 16 male) ; median of age 40 with range 23–66 years ; were taken venous (6 ml Vacuette ; red cap ; 21G needle) and capillary (ring finger ; 1ml Microtainers ; red cap ; MiniCollect Safety lancet, depth 2, 0mm) blood samples according to standards of good laboratory practice. Materials were from Greiner (Greiner Bio-One, Austria) and measurements were performed within 4 hour of blood sample collection. AFP was determinated on immunoassay analyzer Cobas e411 (Roche Diagnostics, Germany) with electrochemiluminance method, original reagent, calibrators and controls. Serum AFP level >5.8 IU/mL was defined as AFP- positive according to the manufacturer’s instructions with lower detection limit 0.50 IU/mL.Statistical analyses of descriptive analysis, correlation and Wilcoxon test for paired samples were performed using statistical software MedCalc version 10.4. Results: Data were not normally distributed and non-parametric Wilcoxon test presented no significant difference between capillary and venous samples (P=1.00). AFP median for capillary blood was 2.72 (95% CI=2.30-3.42) and for venous 2.69 (95% CI=2.23-3.57), with high correlation coefficient r=0.995 (P<0.0001). Conclusion: There are no relevant differences between AFP in healthy adult donors obtained from venous or finger-prick blood samples. Therefore capillary sampling for AFP can be used for sampling of elderly patients, oncology patients, those with severe burns, extreme obesity, or susceptibility to thrombosis, etc.

alpha-fetoprotein, capillary, venous, blood specimen collection

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