Practical Approach to Eliminate Bilirubin Interference in Icteric Samples for Creatinine Measurement JALM Talk Podcast

Clinical chemistry assays are widely impacted by inherent interferences in patient blood samples such as hemolysis, icterus, and lipemia.  These interferences can cause inaccurate laboratory results and may even prevent the laboratory from releasing test results to ordering health care providers.  In particular, the interference of bilirubin in various creatinine assays is common.  Inaccurately reported creatinine, or the inability to report creatinine, can have adverse implications in the management of patients.  Accurate creatinine results are important for assessing kidney function in many clinical contexts such as imaging procedures and the dosing of therapeutic drugs.  Therefore, mechanisms to overcome bilirubin interference and creatinine assays would be beneficial to patient care. The November 2019 issue of The Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine includes a Laboratory Reflections article entitled, “A Practical Approach to Eliminate Bilirubin Interference in Icteric Samples for Creatinine Measurement.”