Simultaneous injection effective mixing flow analysis of urinary albumin using dye-binding reaction

A new four-channel simultaneous injection effective mixing flow analysis (SIEMA) system has been assembled for the determination of urinary albumin. The SIEMA system consisted of a syringe pump, two 5-way cross connectors, four holding coils, five 3-way solenoid valves, a 50-cm long mixing coil and a spectrophotometer. Tetrabromophenol blue anion (TBPB) in Triton X-100 micelle reacted with albumin at pH 3.2 to form a blue ion complex with a λmax 625 nm. TBPB, Triton X-100, acetate buffer and albumin standard solutions were aspirated into four individual holding coils by a syringe pump and then the aspirated zones were simultaneously pushed in the reverse direction to the detector flow cell. Baseline drift, due to adsorption of TBPB–albumin complex on the wall of the hydrophobic PTFE tubing, was minimized by aspiration of Triton X-100 and acetate buffer solutions between samples. The calibration graph was linear in the range of 10–50 μg/mL and the detection limit for albumin (3σ) was 0.53 μg/mL. The RSD (n = 11) at 30 μg/mL was 1.35%. The sample throughput was 37/h. With a 10-fold dilution, interference from urine matrix was removed. The proposed method has advantages in terms of simple automation operation and short analysis time.