Fecal occult blood test methods
AssigneeLitmus Concepts, Inc.
InventorPaul J. Lawrence
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An improved method for detecting peroxidatively active materials in a sample is provided, the method incorporating antimalarial drugs such as quinine, quinidine, chloroquine, primaquine, and quinacrine as modulating compounds. In a preferred embodiment, the method is a fecal occult blood test (FOBT), in which a fecal specimen is contacted with a chromogen and a hydroperoxide in the presence of a selected quinoline derivative. The method enables careful modulation of test sensitivity and specificity, and further provides an FOBT in which interference from dietary meat ingestion is substantially eliminated.
Claims36
A method to inhibit and thereby increase the specificity of a test for detecting the presence of iron protoporphyrins in a fecal specimen, comprising:
- contacting the specimen with a solution containing a chromogen, a hydroperoxide, and an inhibitor compound, wherein the solution contains at least 50% by volume of a solvent for iron protoporphyrins and wherein the inhibitor compound is selected from the group consisting of quinine, primaquine, quinidine and mixtures thereof.
A colorimetric method for detecting the presence of iron protoporphyrins in a fecal specimen, comprising:
- (a) pretreating the fecal specimen with an inhibitor compound selected from the group consisting of quinine, primaquine, quinidine and mixtures thereof;
- and then
- (b) treating the fecal specimen with a hydroperoxide and a chromogen, wherein the chromogen is selected such that it will oxidize to a colored state if iron protoporphyrins are present in the specimen.
In an improved method for detecting the presence of a peroxidatively active substance in a sample by contacting the sample with a chromogen and a hydroperoxide, the improvement comprising applying to the sample, along with the chromogen and the hydroperoxide, an accelerator compound selected from the group consisting of chloroquine, quinacrine, and mixtures thereof, and an inhibitor compound selected from the group consisting of quinine, primaquine, quinidine and mixtures thereof.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.