IMMUNOMETRIC ASSAYS AND AUTOMATION

Over the last few years automation has had a profound impact on the pe rformance of routine immunoassays in the clinical laboratory, Although the automation of specialized, labor-intensive methods has been drive n largely by economic pressures, the development of several new techno logies have made automation feasible, One of the most significant cont ributions has been the use of non-isotopic immunometric assays, which have made it possible to carry out sensitive measurements of circulati ng peptides within minutes, as compared to days with conventional radi oimmunoassays, The use of excess reagents in shortened reactions does impose a requirement for careful design of these procedures, in partic ular with regard to antibody crossreactivities. Nevertheless, the abil ity to perform STAT measurements for urgently required substances such as cardiac markers provides significant benefits in clinical manageme nt, in addition to the improvements in laboratory economy resulting fr om automation.