MULTIVARIATE DETECTION LIMITS ESTIMATORS

The theoretical development of the concept of detection limit in multi component systems has only begun very recently and its practical appli cations are limited to a few specific techniques such as emission spec trometry (ICP-OES) or high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC-DAD ). This paper critically reviews the theoretical approaches advanced u p to the present, describes the hypotheses and theoretical backgrounds on which they are based and discusses the advantages and limitations of the different techniques and derived estimators. The connection wit h the derivation of the detection limits based on the var(c(un)) varia nce associated to the predicted response of an individual observation in regression theory is introduced and finally, some suggestions as to potential areas of interest for future development are envisaged.