Objective: C-reactive protein (CRP) is one of acute phase respondents that has been used to monitor infection and inflammation episodes. In our hospitals' emergency laboratory, CRP analysis is done with a point of care testing device (i-chroma). In our central biochemistry laboratory, same analysis is done with an autoanalyser (Dimension RXL). The aim of this study was to study the performance of immunofluorometric i-Chroma micro-CRP method against the immunoturbidimetric Dade-Behring RCRP method as the reference.

Materials and Methods: Control sera were used to detect between-run and between-day precision. Samples from 81 subjects were collected and CRP levels were determined (double-blind, parallel manner) using both systems.

Results: The imprecision of intra- and the inter-assay CVs (coefficient of variation) of assay systems were CVs< %6 in the range of 16.7 mg/L and 35.1 mg/L. Accuracy was evaluated in the selected fresh sera with CRP levels between 2.5-.227 mg/L. Correlation coefficient was r=0.993 and the regression equation was y=1.091x-1.92.

Conclusion: The i-Chroma micro-CRP assay system is comparable to well-known fully automated Dimension RCRP assay and is suitable for point-of-care testing (POCT) in detection and quantification of CRP.