Aim: The prominent role of HbA(1c) in the follow-up of glycaemic balance in patients with diabetes mellitus necessitates the use of robust and reliable methods of assay. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the In2it analyzer, a new device allowing HbA(1c) evaluation within 10 min, using 10 microL of blood, in the laboratory or clinical unit, using an affinity-based method.
Methods: The analytical performance of the In2it analyzer was tested for precision, interference and linearity, and correlated with two other analyzers - the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-based Variant II analyzer in a laboratory, and the immunology-based DCA 2000 analyzer in a clinical unit - for practicability and its compliance with good laboratory practices.
Results: HbA(1c) assay is linear from 4 to 14%, with coefficients of variations ranging from 2.4 to 3.9%. In2it correlation was satisfactory with both the HPLC Variant II (r(2)=0.974, P<0.001) and DCA 2000 (r(2)=0.794, P<0.001) analyzers although, with the latter, unpredictable differences were randomly observed. However, the method is free of interference from common haemoglobin variants, labile glycated haemoglobin and carbamylated haemoglobin, hyperbilirubinaemia (<520 micromol/L) and hypertriglyceridaemia (<6 mmol/L). The practicability of the analyzer is good. However, software specifications need to be upgraded, especially for quality-control management, traceability of results and data safety.
Conclusion: The In2it analyzer is suitable for HbA(1c) assay in small laboratory series and for point-of-care testing, and its analytical performance is satisfactory overall. However, several issues related to software need to be improved for optimal application. Also, special attention should be paid concerning the possibility of underestimation of results in cases of high hypertriglyceridaemia.
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