Abstract
Measurement of hemoglobin A1c is used as an objective indicator of long-term blood glucose control in diabetic patients. We evaluated recently introduced Norudia$^{(R)}$ HbA1c (Daiichi Pure Chemical Co. Ltd, Tokyo, Japan) test reagent using enzyme method for HbA1c assay. Linearity, precision and correlation with VARIANT$^{TM}$ II Turbo HbA1c analyzer (BIO-RAD, Hercules, CA, USA) were evaluated. The reference range was determined from 201 healthy subjects. The Norudia$^{(R)}$ HbA1c test reagent was founded to be linear in a range of 5.6% to 14.0% ($r^2=0.9885$). The within-run and between-day precision were 0.954% and 1.03% for low level (HbA1c 5.24%), 0.67% and 1.28% for high level (HbA1c 9.01%), respectively. Comparison study between Norudia$^{(R)}$ HbA1c test reagent and VARIANT$^{TM}$ II Turbo showed good correlation with a slope of 1.0489. an intercept at -0.9717, and coefficient of correlation was 0.9907. The reference range of HbA1c obtained from this reagent was 4.07-5.50%. The Norudia$^{(R)}$ HbA1c test reagent showed good linearity, precision and correlation with HbA1c analyzer with HPLC method. In addition, the exclusive analyzer is not required for assay and then this kit may be useful for HbA1c assay in clinical laboratory.