MULTIANALYTICAL SYSTEM (MAS) - SOFTWARE FOR ENZYME-LINKED-IMMUNOSORBENT-ASSAY (ELISA) DATA-PROCESSING WITH APPLICATIONS TO SCREENING AND DIAGNOSTIC-TESTS

A microcomputer software package for determining the concentration of either the antibody or antigen from ELISA data for IBM PC compatible i s presented. In the program optical densities (OD) and fluorescence ob tained from 96-well ELISA plate can be input either directly, by inter facing with differents brands of microplate reader such as Multiskan I I Plus and Organon Teknika to the computer or manually. This software utilizes some mathematical and statistical models to fit the standard curve of each assay and interpolate analyte concentration using data f rom OD or fluorescence measurements. Cubic spline (Guardabasso et al., 1988), bezier and polynomial (Rodbard, 1979; Baud et al., 1991) inter polation formulas can be used to fit the data over the entire range fo r estimating the antibody or antigen concentration of the unknown samp les whose OD or fluorescence is beyond the entire range. This software package, based on the concentration values of the analyte determined in different fluids (Numez et al., 1994; Morales et al., 1994) and wit h some rules and algorithms, is used to calculate the parameters of sc reening and diagnostic tests such as sensitivity, specificity acid pre dictive values (Coughlin et al., 1992). With the construction of the R eceiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve it is possible to analyse different values of the sensitivity and specificity of the screening and diagnostic tests. A comparative statistical test for two populatio ns that are non-normally distributed using a non-parametric Mann-Whitn ey test is provided. This software is an expandable tool designed for general use in clinical and experimental applications, including diagn ostic and screening tests.