TY  - JOUR
PY  - 1998//
TI  - Carbamazepine interference with an immune assay for tricyclic antidepressants in plasma
JO  - Journal of toxicology - clinical toxicology
A1  - Chattergoon, D. S.
A1  - Verjee, Z.
A1  - Anderson, Michael
A1  - Johnson, D.
A1  - McGuigan, M. A.
A1  - Koren, G.
A1  - Ito, S.
SP  - 109
EP  - 113
VL  - 36
IS  - 1-2
N2  - BACKGROUND: Drug toxicological screening is commonly used as a diagnostic tool in patients with suspected toxic ingestion. False positive results due to cross-reactive compounds in drug assays may lead to misdiagnosis and mismanagement, especially when child abuse is suspected. CASE REPORT: Two of our patients with history of ingestion of carbamazepine were tested positive on screening with the tricyclic antidepressant immunoassay. The immunoassay's known cross-reactivity for carbamazepine is reportedly as low as 0.3%. Plasma samples of our patients were initially considered positive for tricyclic antidepressants because the cross-reaction of carbamazepine gave tricyclic antidepressant concentrations as imipramine equivalent sufficiently above the assay cut-off point (20 ng/mL). Later, confirmatory urine testing of both patients using high-performance liquid chromatography was negative for tricyclic antidepressants. CONCLUSION: This interference has significant clinical implications, and can be avoided on urine testing using a specific chromatographic assay such as high-performance liquid chromatography.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0731-3810
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/
ID  - ref1
ER  -