Simple Methods for Measuring Serum Levels of the Glutamic-oxalacetic and Glutamic-pyruvic Transaminases in Routine Laboratories

Measurements of the levels of serum glutamicoxalacetic transaminase (SGO-T) and serum glutamic-pyruvic transaminase (SGP-T) have become useful procedures in the diagnosis of some cases of myocardial infarction and of liver disorder (for instance, Shabetai, Iglauer, and Anderson, 1957; Wroblewski and La Due, 1956a and b).The procedures described here are the result of work done with the object of establishing simple and economical techniques which would not require the use of a spectrophotometer.Hitherto, methods applicable to ordinary colorimeters have been developed by Cabaud, Leeper, and Wroblewski (1956) and by Frankel and Reitman (1956), to whom must go the credit for perceiving the possibility of a technique operating without precipitation of protein.The latter method is unpublished,* and is available only in the shape of reagents marketed commercially.The method of Cabaud et al. is more complex, involving protein precipitation and toluene extrac- tion, and has been used as the standard reference procedure in the work reported here.The method used of estimating SGP-T was that of Wroblewski and Cabaud (1957).The principle adopted in the method of Cabaud et al. consists in the toluene extraction of the pyruvic dinitrophenyl-hydrazone derivatives of the products of the enzyme reactions and their measurement in alcoholic alkaline solution by colorimetry.This procedure has been adapted to meet the requirements imposed by the desire to avoid both the precipitation of proteins (with con- sequent need for centrifugalization) and the need for extraction in toluene not miscible in water,