Determination of the concentrations of interferents in blood serum by use of a novel solid-state colorimeter

The quality of the clinical-chemistry analysis of blood serum is greatly af fected by interfering substances contained in the sample. At present, skill ed laboratory personnel select specimens which can be processed by the anal yser. Selection is performed by visual inspection of the serum colour. Td r educe laboratory labour costs and risk of infections, we developed an inexp ensive, simple and compact solid-state colorimeter to determine concentrati ons of interferents. This sensor can be integrated into modern clinical-che mistry analysers. The determination of concentrations of interferents is ba sed on the measurement of the extinction coefficients of the serum sample a t four different wavelengths. In this paper, this instrument and its perfor mance are presented.