RESUMO
Testosterone was measured using antibodies raised against testosterone 11 Bcarboxymethyl ether bovine serum albmin [T-11B-CME-BSA] and testosterone 3-O-carboxymethyl oxime-BSA as immunogen. The antibody produced in this study exhibits minimal cross reactivity with the structurally related steroids specially 5 dihydrotestosterone [5 DHT]. This allows to ommit the clean up step and measure testosterone in female serum samples accurately with a high sensitivity, precision, and specificity. The coefficent of variation [CV], standard deviation [SD] and standard error of mean [SE] were all in acceptable ranges. Antibody-bound and free steroids were separated by addition of dextran coated charcoal. The method was applied to a set of clinical samples, the results of which are discussed in this communication. The assay was compared with the available imported kits using 1251 as tracer. The correlation coefficient obtained is calcualted to be r = 0.96, showing that the results obtained by these two methods are fully comparable and the assay may be replaced with the similar preparations imported from abroad