Suppose your laboratory uses a sandwich immunoassay to measure a specific hormone.Following release of a patient's results, the physician questioned the results because they did not match with the patient's symptoms; the results appear falsely elevated.What steps should be taken to evaluate the physician's concerns?

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Quizplus · Accepted Answer

In sandwich immunoassays, one particular problem is interference from circulating heterophilic human antibodies specific for animal immunoglobulins used as reagents.Heterophilic antibodies can cause false-positive results by cross-linking antibodies in a similar manner to the analyte of interest.To confirm this and to remove heterophilic antibodies, non-immune globulins (usually provided with the assay reagents) can be pre-incubated with patient sample to bind all heterophilic antibodies present without interfering with the antigen of interest.Rerunning the assay following this pre-incubation will show a decreased result, since interfering heterophilic antibodies have been removed.

Suppose Your Laboratory Uses a Sandwich Immunoassay to Measure a Specific