Comparison of ELISA and chemiluminescence immunoassay methods for quantification of human Placental growth factor in serum

Abstract

Placental growth factor (PlGF) is crucial during placental development in early pregnancy. Several studies in pregnancies with complications such as preeclampsia or small for gestational age neonates find that PlGF levels are significantly lower in the first trimester, which implies that the concentration of PlGF could be used as an early screening biomarker for these conditions. This study aimed to compare the performance of chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the quantification of human PlGF in serum. This is a comparative study on 88 pregnant women in the first trimester subjected to measurement of PlGF in serum using two commercially available kits: Human PlGF Quantikine HS ELISA (R&D Systems) and PlGF CLIA (Snibe). The overall coefficient of correlation between the tests was 0.93. When the cut-off value of 40 pg/mL was applied, it dropped significantly to 0.50 towards the lower values, while remaining an excellent 0.91 in the group with higher concentrations of PlGF. While R&D Systems’s ELISA seems to have better sensitivity, it is not very convenient to use for a small number of samples. Snibe’s CLIA automated method is user-friendly, fast and powerful. Both tests show excellent performance when indicating risk-free pregnancies.