Invalidation of a Commercially Available Human 5α-Dihydrotestosterone Immunoassay

September 2013 in “ Steroids ”

Joshua F. Yarrow, Darren T. Beck, Christine F. Conover, Luke A. Beggs, Bruce A. Goldberger, Stephen E. Borst

dihydrotestosterone DHT testosterone finasteride LC–MS/MS immunoassay Propecia

TLDR The DHT immunoassay is unreliable due to high cross-reactivity with testosterone.

The study invalidated a commercially available dihydrotestosterone (DHT) immunoassay due to significant cross-reactivity with testosterone, which ranged from 18% to 99%. This cross-reactivity led to DHT concentrations being overestimated by 79% to over 1000% compared to the gold-standard LC–MS/MS method. The immunoassay failed to detect reductions in DHT following finasteride treatment, unlike LC–MS/MS. The study involved older hypogonadal men in a 12-month trial, highlighting that the immunoassay's results were not reliable for assessing DHT in biological fluids containing testosterone.

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Invalidation of a Commercially Available Human 5α-Dihydrotestosterone Immunoassay

Research cited in this study

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