Immunoassay : a practical guide / edited by Daniel W. Chan ; associate editor, Marie T. Perlstein

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During the last few years, immunoassay has gained tremendous popularity in clinical and research laboratories and has been applied to determine hormone, enzyme, protein, drug, and infectious agent. The advent of monoclonal antibodies allows for measurement of analytes by immunoassay that were previously difficult to analyze. In some instances, immu¬noassay has replaced "traditional" methods, for example, the measurement of enzyme mass rather than enzyme activity and the determination of drug con-centration by immunoassay rather than chromatography. Most published books in immunoassay deal with the theory or the method for a specific analyte. Few books discuss the practical aspects of immunoassay. This book is based on workshop materials given by a number of the contributors during the last ten years to various professional societies, including the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC), American Society for Clinical Pa-thology (ASCP), American Society for Medical Technology (ASMT), and Clinical Ligand Assay Society (CLAS). The aim of this book is to provide clinical laboratory personnel and students with an understanding of the principie of immunoassay (Chapter 1) and the production of reagents for immunoassay (Chapter 2). With the availability of commercial reagents and immunoassay "kits," it is important for laboratory personnel to use good judgment in the selection of an immunoassay method. Chapters 3 and 4 provide such a practical guide for assessing the analytical and clinical performances of immunoassay. Chapter 5 provides an understanding of the data reduction method as well as some practical computer programs. Chapter 6 provides a quality control program and recommendations for troubleshooting. We would like to thank the editorial office at Academic Press for support in the publication of this book.