The assay does not directly measure β-glucan; rather, the α-glucan value is subtracted from the total glucan value to generate an indirect β-glucan result. As these are effectively two separate analyses, normal analytical variation can sometimes result in a total glucan value that is slightly lower than the corresponding α-glucan value, leading to a negative calculated β-glucan result.
This is not unusual and can occur particularly in samples that contain predominantly α-glucan and very little β-glucan, where small differences between the two measurements can have a proportionally larger impact on the final calculated result.
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