OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the performance of the Roche Diagnostics Tina-quant Cystatin C particle enhanced immuno turbidimetric assay for the measurement of plasma and serum cystatin C, and to establish reference intervals for cystatin C in healthy blood donors.

METHODS AND MATERIALS: The cystatin C measurements were performed on the Roche Modular Analytics P automated clinical chemistry analyzer.

RESULTS: The cystatin C assay was linear in the measuring range 0.40-7.00 mg/L. Within-run CVs < or = 2.0%, between-run CVs < or = 4.2%, and total CVs < or = 5.5% in plasma pools and in commercial cystatin C control materials (range 1.0-4.7 mg/L). Recovery was 99.4-109.3%. No interference was detected from haemoglobin < 0.9 mmol/L, bilirubin < 330 micromol/L and Intralipid < 20 g/L. Measurement of cystatin C in Li-heparin plasma did not differ significantly from cystatin C measured in serum. Forty patient samples run on the Modular Analytics P (y) were compared to the Siemens Cystatin C assay on the BN II (x): y = 0.817x + 0.270, Sy.x = 0.168 (Deming regression). The non-parametric reference interval for cystatin C was calculated to be 0.41-0.91 mg/L in females (n = 86), and 0.43-0.94 mg/L in males (n = 76). The Mann-Whitney U test showed a significant difference between the two genders (p = 0.015), but the difference was without clinical relevance. A common reference interval for both genders (n = 162) was calculated to be 0.41-0.92 mg/L.

CONCLUSION: The performance of the Tina-quant Cystatin C assay was acceptable for clinical use.