Comparison of HPLC and ELISA methods in neuroblastoma screening

Abstract

The high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method, which measures vanillylmandelic acid (VMA) and homovanillic acid (HVA) in urine samples, is currently recommended by the Japanese Federal Government as a tool for the domestic mass-screening of neuroblastoma. However, there may be technical problems with the method when staff are required to measure many samples in succession. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method may be a more suitable primary mass screening tool when it is necessary to handle a large number of samples. In order to evaluate the utility of the ELISA method for mass-screening, we tested the `same samples' by the HPLC and ELISA methods and analyzed the results. Samples were first screened by the HPLC method at Kumamoto Chemo-Sero-Therapy Research Institute and Sapporo City Institute of Public Health. The same samples were Then sent to Kyorin University where an independent screening utilizing the ELISA method was performed. The results of the two screenings were compared. VMA and HVA measurement kits (Yamasa Corp., Tokyo) were utilized for the ELISA method. Samples (40,780) tested by the two screening laboratories between August 1991 and January 1992 were the subject of this study. The results obtained with the two methods showed good correlation. The nine cases of neuroblastoma detected with the HPLC method were also detected with the ELISA method. It is our conclusion that the ELISA method is suitable for the screening of neuroblastoma.