Table 3.

Effect of PEG precipitation on the results obtained for samples of several patients (Numbers in column 1 are laboratory ID numbers for other patients studied. The case described in the text is at the top of the Table).

	Sample	TSH (µU/mL)	fT4 (ng/dL)	LH (mU/mL)	FSH (mU/mL)	Prolactin (ng/mL)	Testosterone (ng/mL)	ACTH (ng/mL)
Case Patient	untreated	7.49	0.95	103.26	45.28	36.4	3.83
serum	+PEG	xa	2.48	x	1.76	4.16	3.14
Case Patient	untreated	5.96	0.89	91.87	54.5	33.86	8.53	135
EDTAb	+PEG	1.50	x	x	2.44	3.96	6.02	<10
1134669	untreated	1.87	0.86	34.15	15.70	8.44	0.00
serum	+PEG	x	2.14	x	13.50	9.06	x
1134669	untreated	1.43	0.90	33.73	15.95	7.92	0.75	20.3
EDTA	+PEG	4.90	2.24	x	15.38	9.76	0.66	<10
1236183	untreated	1.41	0.70	8.50	6.28	24.74	0.30
serum	+PEG	2.82	2.00	x	3.96	24.86	0.00
1236183	untreated	0.81	0.70	9.03	6.72	23.88	0.94	13.9
EDTA	+PEG	x	1.80	x	6.18	27.32	0.98	<10
6497661	untreated	4.02	0.94	7.85	4.90	15.23	0.46
serum	+PEG	x	2.52	x	3.78	14.36	0.00
6497661	untreated	2.60	0.98	8.17	6.09	14.81	1.34	14.7
EDTA	+PEG	5.80	2.61	x	5.58	15.06	1.62	x
6549919	untreated	0.36	1.15	62.62	104.42	10.86	0.65
serum	+PEG	x	3.08	x	83.44	10.60	0.24
6363715	untreated						8.72
serum	+PEG						7.04
6551911	untreated	1.13	2.37	6.03	15.28	9.49	3.64
serum	+PEG	2.64	5.06	x	16.20	11.60	3.20

TSH, fT4, LH, FSH, prolactin and testosterone assays were performed on the Dxi Beckman Coulter analyzer and ACTH on the Immulite Siemens analyzer.

^ax denotes assays showing interference by the presence of PEG in the sample supernatant.

^bThe recommended samples for all assays performed with the Beckman Coulter Access® instrumentation are serum or heparinized plasma.