Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke measured by cotinine 125I-radioimmunoassay

We describe a polyclonal-antiserum-based 125I-radioimmunoassay for cotinine that is suitable for measuring nonsmokers' passive exposure to tobacco smoke in the environment. The standard curve ranged from 0.25 to 12.0 micrograms/L, with an estimated lower limit of sensitivity of 0.2 microgram/L (95% B/Bo = 0.2 microgram/L; 50% B/Bo = 4.0 micrograms/L). The median within-assay CVs for patients' samples with cotinine values from 0.4 to 1.3, 1.4 to 2.4, 2.5 to 4.6, and 4.7 to 15.6 micrograms/L were 13.9%, 7.2%, 5.1%, and 5.7%, respectively. Between-assay CVs for two quality-control sera with average values of 1.53 and 3.68 micrograms/L were 14.3% and 7.8%, respectively. Analytical recoveries of cotinine from smokers' sera diluted in zero calibrant ranged from 91% to 116%. Cotinine values determined on 79 paired sera and urines from nonsmokers showed significant correlation with self-reported exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (r = 0.49, P less than 0.001 for sera; r = 0.57, P less than 0.001 for urine). The log of the values for serum and urine cotinine were also significantly correlated (r = 0.85, P less than 0.001). Evidently, polyclonal antiserum can be used to develop a cotinine assay for measuring exposure to environmental tobacco smoke that compares well with that described for monoclonal-based assays.