Prenatal trisomy 21 screening using the Lens culinaris agglutinin-reactive alpha-fetoprotein ratio.

For the purpose of improving the clinical efficacy of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP)-L3% in prenatal screening for trisomy 21, we calculated the multiple of the median (MoM) of AFP-L3% (L3 MoM) and the ratio of L3 MoM to AFP MoM (L3 MoM/AFP MoM) in maternal serum. Maternal serum samples from 1822 women (maternal age 37.3 +/- 3.

Lectin-reactive alpha-fetoprotein (AFP-L3%) curability and prediction of clinical course after treatment of non-seminomatous germ cell tumors.

Objective: Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is an important tumor marker for non-seminomatous germ cell tumors (NSGCTs) that greatly affects diagnosis and the evaluations of therapy and therapeutic policy. However, it is sometimes very difficult to make the distinction between tumors and falsely elevated AFP levels due to benign liver disease. We assessed the usefulness of lectin-reactive alpha-fetoprotein (AFP-L3%), which has been reported to be superior to total AFP in both sensitivity and specificity in hepatocellular carcinomas, for the evaluation of predictions of clinical courses after the treatment of NSGCTs.

Simultaneous determination of percentage of Lens culinaris agglutinin-reactive alpha-fetoprotein and alpha-fetoprotein concentration using the LiBASys clinical auto-analyzer.

Background: Lens culinaris agglutinin (LCA)-reactive alpha-fetoprotein (AFP-L3) percentage of total AFP concentration [(AFP-L3/total AFP)x100] has been used as an effective marker for earlier diagnosis, for assessment of therapeutic effects and for predicting the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Methods: A new clinical automatic analyzer, the "LiBASys", and an assay kit for the simultaneous determination of AFP-L3 percentage and concentration of AFP in human serum were developed. LiBASys performed automatic re-measurement and also met stat samples.